The Very Beginning
by EchoResonance
Summary: Everyone sees the way the Spartoi team works together. Everyone sees their easy-and sometimes not so easy-friendships. But, rarely do we get a chance to see how these relationships formed. So why not start, for a change, from the very beginning...?
1. The Dark Arm

_**I'm introducing the characters to each other in the first few chapters, just to experiment. Bear with me, please **__**; )**_

_**Tsubaki, Blackstar, Soul**_

Ah, school.

I walked up the steps leading to the DWMA, feeling a bit self-conscious in my forest green and brown official uniform. No one else was wearing them. Then again, other people probably had enough money to buy their own clothes. I sighed, then shook away the thoughts. I was enrolled at Death Weapon Meister Academy, something I'd always dreamed of. That meant more to me than any fancy wardrobe.

Quickly, using the senses I had honed back at my village, I picked up on the sound of a commotion, and hastened to make it up the stairs. There were a lot of people outside the Academy, all circled around some loud boy standing on a tall statue of Lord Death. He was well-built, with impressive muscles and deeply tanned skin. The clothes he wore looked a little strange, but on closer observation I noticed that they were made of a light, supple material, good for lots of movement, and good for being silent. That kind of material, no matter what it brushed against, never made a noise.

Much like Tsubaki, a camellia blossom, was a flower that held no fragrance. This was the blossom I was named after, although at times that still stung. Having a name to represent that which is undetectable but for sight and touch. No fragrance, nothing special. But I had learned to overwrite this.

The boy flipped on the statue, holding himself up with one hand, still talking loudly and rapidly. Something about how big of a guy he was—not really, he was about average height—and how someday he would surpass God. My, but he was a bit arrogant.

His blue hair was long and stuck up all over the place, reminding me a bit of a startled cat. His eyes were dark, too, very dark blue. And on his bicep was the white outline of a star.

People started trickling away, muttering about how arrogant the boy was, how stupid, how utterly obnoxious. More students fed the trickles until it was as though human rivers were streaming away from the over-confident, blue-haired, wannabe ninja. They kept going, and going, until I was the only one left to witness him as he made both an ass and a fool of himself. And yet, something about his behavior was strangely endearing. Much the way a young pup thinks that the world belongs to it, and thinks that it can do anything, completely unafraid. So, when he finished his long monologue, I smiled and clapped. He looked down at me coolly, as if wondering if I was mocking him. Then he smirked and jumped down with his hands in his pockets.

"I think you'll do it," I confide. He cocked his head curiously. "Surpass God."

He threw back his head and laughed.

"You bet I will!" He looked me over again, then held out a hand. "My name's Blackstar. Biggest meister around here."

I smiled and shook his hand; it was warm and calloused, and almost twice as big as my own.

"Tsubaki Nakatsukasa. Dark Arm."

Blackstar let out a low whistle.

"Damn, I heard the rumors, but I didn't believe them." Now it was my turn to cock my head. "Did you know that you've been stealing away attention from me from the second you enrolled?"

I laughed quietly. "I'm sorry, I never meant to."

Blackstar huffed. "Yeah, well you did. But, I'm not one to hold a grudge. Tell you what, how 'bout you be my weapon, then any attention _you_ get will bring it straight back around to me."

Again I laughed, but I nodded and gave his hand a final shake. "Sounds good."

Blackstar cracked his knuckles, then his neck. "Just imagine what they'll say about me now! Blackstar, the greatest assassin ever, in possession of a Dark Arm!"

I rolled my eyes but smiled, following Blackstar inside as he boasted of his greatness. _This will be an interesting partnership_. I thought dryly.

…..

"Yo, Soul!" Blackstar shouted across the classroom. I followed his gaze and saw a white-haired boy sleeping at his seat, a small bit of drool oozing down his chin. However, when Blackstar hollered, the boy, Soul, immediately snapped to attention, looking around. I felt goosebumps rise on my neck and arms. Soul had large, bright, blood red eyes, and when he smirked, it showed a set of teeth shark-like in the respect that they were pointed. I couldn't help the shiver that ran through me, although I should know better than to judge by appearances.

"Yo, Blackstar!" Soul answered, standing and stretching. He walked over to us, his eyes—those bright red eyes—grazing over me as he did. The boys slapped hands, then turned their attention to me.

"You new?" Soul asked. I nodded meekly. He turned to my new meister. "Damn, man, why couldn't you give me a shot? She's _hot_!" My face was hot, and I knew I must be blushing a rather unattractive shade of red.

"Tch, why? You're both weapons anyway; not like you could pair up," said Blackstar superiorly.

Soul raised his eyebrows.

"You're a weapon?" I nodded again. "What kind?"

Then, before I could answer, Blackstar cut in. "A Dark Arm! How cool am I, to have a Dark Arm weapon?"

Soul sucked in a breath. "Pretty damn cool. But, Blackstar, have you even tried holding her in her weapon form? You always say you found a weapon, but then your soul wavelength doesn't match up with theirs. Ever."

Blackstar barely paused.

"Well, no, not yet, but come _on_. She's a friggin Dark Arm! She's a ninja weapon—she was _made_ to be my partner!"

I frowned. "Hey guys, I'm right here," I reminded.

Soul glanced over. "Sorry,"

"So, I take it you two are friends?" I asked, trying to push the topic away from me.

Instantly they replied, in perfect unison: "Brothers from different mothers!"

"Known him since I could walk and talk," said Soul. "Not sure if that's good or bad, though… He rubs off on you…"

"Psh, whatever!" Blackstar said indignantly. "You wouldn't be _half_ as cool as you are now if it hadn't been for me teaching you the ropes!"

I started to regret my tactics. They bickered like that until the bell rang, signaling the start of class, and Blackstar dragged me to his seat, where I joined him quietly on his right side. I watched Soul trudge back to his seat, hands shoved in his pockets. He plunked down and stared moodily into space. I leaned over to Blackstar, who was already zoning out.

"Does Soul not have a partner?" I whispered as a tall, lithe man rolled in on a rolling chair. He wore a long white lab coat with a stitch pattern over it, although I couldn't see anything he would have needed to sew up. The strangest part, though, was not the stitches on his coat—on everything he _wore_, actually—but the giant screw that penetrated his skull.

"Huh? Oh, nah. Doesn't like anyone here enough." Blackstar shrugged, unconcerned.

"Oh…" I said softly, looking down at Soul in the row below us. He had a brooding expression, only enhanced by his blood colored eyes.

Choosing not to have a partner? That must have been lonely…


	2. The Twin Pistols

_**Death the Kid, Patricia (Pati) and Elizabeth (Liz) Thompson**_

I sighed dramatically. Some people just didn't know symmetry. I felt the beginning of one of my neurotic tendencies coming. She was only holding the pistol in _one hand_! The asymmetry of it! How revolting!

"I'm gonna ask you one last time," drawled the tall, dirty blonde, breathing cigarette smoke into my face. I wrinkled my nose, but fought the urge to cough. "_Nicely_. Why don't you just hand over anything of value you got? Don't really wanna damage that good-lookin' face of yours, do we, Pati?"

The reflection of my attacker's weapon appeared in the steel pistol, grinning psychotically and cackling. _"I don't care sis!"_ she giggled madly.

The taller girl sighed and pushed her hair back with her free hand. She had blue eyes. She may have been pretty, if it weren't for the layer of dirt and grime, and her fierce scowl.

"I don't carry anything of value with me. Sorry," I said calmly. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Then I guess I'll just shoot you now."

She pulled the trigger. I tackled her to the ground, and the pistol skittered across the pavement. The pistol, Pati, shouted for her sister before changing back in a flash of pink.

"I don't think I can let you continue hurting people," I said, keeping my calm demeanor. The dirty blonde gave a nasty, knowing smile, and she started to glow.

"What the—" I started. Then, right before my eyes, the girl I had thought to be a meister changed into a silver pistol identical to the one her sister had become, and flew through the air to said sister's outstretched hand. This girl was shorter, with paler hair and larger curves. She was also crazier. She started firing wildly, but the bullets had no effect on my body. My Reaper body was more durable than a human's, and those weren't real bullets that the pistol—pistol_s_—but compressed wavelengths, which could do a Hell of a lot of damage, but wouldn't kill. Most of the time.

"Wait!" I shouted. Obediently—or maybe just intrigued that I was standing right in front of her without flinching at her shots—the girl, Pati, stopped firing.

"_Pati! What're you doing?"_ demanded the pistol.

"Big sis, he's not running," said Pati curiously.

"No, I'm not running," I reiterated. "Actually, I have a proposal for the two of you."

The older sister showed up on the shiny barrel, eyeing my warily. _"What kind of proposal?"_

"I'll tell you, after you change back," I said. The asymmetrical way Pati held the pistol was starting to affect me.

The girl in the pistol looked at me for another second, then, in a flash of light identical to her sister's, she stood on her own two feet, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What kind of proposal?" she repeated flatly.

"Come with me to Death City," I started.

"Ha, yeah, why don't we just turn ourselves over to Lord Death while we're at it?" snarled the girl viciously. "We haven't exactly been model citizens, kid."

"Actually, if you came back as my weapons, there would be no problem," I said smugly.

Now, I'm not crazy. Really, I'm not. But my father had been trying for ages to find me a suitable weapon partner, but the problem was always the same—they were entirely asymmetrical. But here, right before me, were two twin pistols, one for each hand, identical to the other in their weapon form. I could never pass up this opportunity.

The dirty blonde gave me a scalding look. "You a meister, kid?"

I nodded, hiding a smirk. She was calling me my name by accident.

"What's your name?"

My smile grew more pronounced. "I guarantee you won't have any trouble with Lord Death if you become my partners."

"I said, what's your name, kid?" she snapped.

I took a bow, grinning hugely now.

"Death the Kid, at your service."

The dirty blonde backpedalled—her younger sister just looked lost.

"You're Lord Death's son!" the girl exclaimed. "You'll turn us in!"

I shook my head patiently.

"No, I wouldn't. I need a weapon. More specifically, two. You see, I can't have just any weapon. If I had just one weapon, I would have to hold it on one side, or with both hands off-center, and it would be entirely asymmetrical. It would be disgusting, really. I must have symmetry at all times. You two would help me to achieve this."

The two sisters looked at me for a long time. Finally the older one spoke up.

"…Symmetry. _That's_ your reason for wanting us? Not because we're badass twin pistols, or because we're street smart, but because we're _symmetrical_?" She threw back her head and howled with laughter. "Kid, you're nuts! Completely, totally insane!" She wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye, and held out her hand. "But I get along best with crazy people. You've got a deal, Death the Kid!"

Pati looked at us as we shook hands, then burst into laughter too.

"What's so funny, Pati?" asked the older sister.

"He's obsessed with symmetry, but he shook your hand! _With only one of his!_"

I dropped the girl's hand as though it had burned me, and sunk to my knees.

"_And _he has three stripes on the left side of his head, but not on the right!" Pati howled.

I crumpled. She was right. I was filth. Trash. Garbage. Filthy Reaper scum. I shouldn't be allowed to live. I was an abomination to symmetry!

The older sister sighed and knelt beside me. "Pati, now's not really the best time to be upsetting our only shot at a second chance."

Obediently Pati fell silent, although she was still wracked by silent laughter.

"Hey, just ignore my sister, Kid. She's a bit obnoxious and loud, but her heart's in the right place. Are you sure you want to take us back with you?"

I lifted my head and nodded. With a cautious smile, she helped me to my feet. It wasn't the smile she'd given earlier, which was more a bearing of teeth. This one was reserved, but hopeful, without any of the malice. I moved to leave, and the two automatically fell in step on either side of me. They adapted well.

"Oh, and by the way, I'm Liz Thompson," added the older girl.

I smiled and nodded, and we walked together in comfortable silence to the hotel I was staying at. This would be the start of an interesting partnership.


	3. Reaper and Assassin Clash

_**Soul, Blackstar, Tsubaki, and Kid, Liz, Pati**_

"Would you look at us now, Pati?" I said airily, stretching my arms behind my head as I climbed the stairs. "Raised on the streets, and now students at the DWMA. We've come a long way."

"Yeah, this is gonna be friggin' _awesome_!" Pati squealed, looking all around at the view we got from the top of the stairs. The whole of Death City lay sprawled beneath us, stretching out until it met the hot, dry desert that surrounded it.

"Hey!" Called a rough voice from the front doors of the building. Kid and I looked over—Pati just kept staring out over the city. A boy about Kid's age—thirteen, fourteen—was sitting slouched against the doors, looking bored as Hell. He had a shock of white hair, and his eyes were bright scarlet. "You the new kid we've been hearin' so much about? The one who took down Anubis?"

Kid nodded. "Yeah, this is my first day. Are you here to show me around?"

The boy snorted and shook his head. "What do I look like to you, the welcoming committee? If you'd been here at seven like you're suppose to you could've showed yourself around."

"What's that?" Kid growled. "What did you say, _seven_?"

Uh-oh. I sighed.

"No! Take it back! Say eight, eight is better!" Kid all but shrieked, pointing at the Kid, who looked startled. "It's physically impossible to cut the number seven into halves and keep it symmetrical! Eight cut in half vertically or horizontally remains perfectly symmetrical!" he ended on a hiss, then continued in a pathetic voice. "Please, take it back. Say eight. I beg you."

The boy looked at Kid, groveling on the ground at his feet, and pulled his feet away as though the kid was a disease. Hell, I would too, if I'd been greeted like _that_.

"Uh, dude, is there something wrong with you?" the boy asked, nudging Kid in the side with his toe.

"Yes. He's absolutely insane," I sighed. "Hey, I'm Liz Thompson. That over there's Pati—Pati? What're you looking at?"

I'd caught my sister staring up at something on the side of the school. I followed her gaze. Something was preening on one of the spikes protruding from the walls, shouting something unintelligible.

"Hey Kid, I think something up there's yelling at you. Can't tell what it is, though. Looks like a monkey." I watched it do some weird little jiggy hop. "Yeah, must be a monkey."

Then the unthinkable happened. Just as Kid looked up, the spike beneath the monkey's feet cracked and broke, falling to the ground with the creature. Kid screamed. _Oh, no_. I thought. Me and my sister had been living with Kid all summer, and we'd learned a good deal about his OCD. One thing about it was that he couldn't control it. No one could. He was completely obsessed with symmetry, with balance, and if something's balance is messed up, Kid loses any semblance of sanity. Like now.

As the tip of the spike crashed into the ground, I realized it hadn't been a monkey up there, but a blue–haired boy. He landed on his feet amidst the rubble.

"Face it, Kid, I'm much too big of a guy for you to handle," he grinned cockily, straightening up.

"Look what you've done—it's not symmetrical anymore you ass," Kid seethed.

"Uh-oh, now you've really done it," I grumbled.

"Who-oa," agreed Pati.

I sighed. We'd done nothing but fight since we got off the streets. I could use a break. Oh, well.

The next ten minutes were not pretty for the blue-haired monkey boy or his red-eyed friend.

…..

"You idiots!" I exclaimed, storming into the infirmary where Soul and Blackstar had been carried, unconscious, after fighting with Lord Death's son, and his weapons. "What were you thinking?"

"Idiots?" said Blackstar, mystified.

"I think…" Soul winced as he propped himself up on his elbows. "That that is the meanest thing you've ever said to either of us. Good job, Tsubaki, you're growing some lady balls."

I'm sure my face was bright scarlet, and I smacked him half-heartedly on his temple.

"Oww!" He shouted, clapping his hand to his head, which only made him groan again. "Splitting damn headache Tsubaki!"

"Hey Tsubaki," said Blackstar from his bed. He was bruised and battered, but for some reason, he seemed ecstatic. "We beat up a Reaper!"

I stared at him, mouth hanging open.

"I think you mean you _got beat up by_ a Reaper, Blackstar," I said slowly.

"Psh! Whatever! Did you see him cough up blood and pass out?" Blackstar scoffed, and Soul threw in a hearty laugh.

"That was only because—" I started, but a different voice finished my sentence.

"Your pal Soul managed to cut the right sight of Kid's bangs," said the older sister. Liz, if memory served. "Once he noticed, he had one of his classic symmetry attacks because his bangs weren't balanced out and fainted."

"Yeah, but technically they did _make_ him pass out," said Liz's sister Pati, peering around to look at them.

"Yeah, but I made _both _of them pass out," pointed out Kid, walking in behind the Thompson sisters. Immediately he froze and turned to look at the wall with all the medicine bottles and flower pots arranged on shelves.

"Uh-oh," sighed Liz, and no sooner had the words left her lips than Kid was off on one of his neurotic spaz attacks.

"The symmetry is completely off!" he wailed.

"Sorry about him," Liz said, grinning. "I'm Liz, and this is Pati. That lunatic is Death the Kid, but you can call him Kid. We didn't get a chance to formally introduce ourselves out there."

"I'm Tsubaki Nakatsukasa," I said, shaking the girl's outstretched hand. It was surprisingly rough for someone who looked so…pampered.

"Nice to meet you, Tsubaki," the girl grinned.

"HAI! I'm Pati!" cackled the younger sister as she watched Kid. She kept laughing and saying things like _"here we go again!" _or _"frickin hilarious!"_

"Gotta fix it…" Kid grumbled, running to and fro along the shelves, rearranging everything.

"Nygus ain't gonna like that," Soul muttered, then climbed out of his bed and stretched, moaning as his joints cracked and popped.

"Hey! I'm Blackstar! Yahoo!" Blackstar introduced himself to Liz, also clambering out of bed. "I'm the biggest star around—definitely the biggest guy _you'll _ever meet. I'm gonna—" we finished his sentence for him. "_Surpass God."_

"Yo, I'm Soul Eater," grunted Soul, making no move to take Liz's hand.

"Eater?" she said questioningly.

He nodded. "Real name's Soul Evans. Don't go by it if I can help it."

"I totally get that," Liz said lazily. He cut her a quick look, and I noticed that, unlike most people, unlike _me_ at first, Liz didn't flinch away from Soul's red eyes, or his shark-like teeth. _Of course_, I thought, wanting to smack myself. Little things in appearances wouldn't bother someone who's grown up on the street, who's had to fight tooth and nail every day of her life. I mean, she _was_ partnered with a Grim Reaper now, albeit his eyes were gold, not scarlet.

"Still not symmetrical…" Kid mumbled, still dashing around like a roadrunner on drugs.

"So, you wanna start over?" asked Liz after a moment. "I think this could be a beneficial relationship all the way around."

We all exchanged looks, then nodded in unison.

"Welcome to the band of misfits, Liz, Pati, Kid," said Soul sardonically.

_This will be a very interesting relationship…_ I thought to myself.


	4. The New Girl

_**Maka and the Gang**_

"Hey!" I called. "What's up?"

BlackStar bounded forward, nearly bowling a couple of kids over as they played tag in the trees.

"Yahooooo!" the assassin shouted. "Your god has arrived!"

Let me explain something. My blue-haired friend had a serious god-complex, as if that wasn't obvious. He was loud and obnoxious and completely thoughtless. Self-centered, with arrogance to surpass my own, there was only one weapon, probably in the whole world(If you cross out Excalibur, because even BlackStar would never be able to handle that _thing,_ ugh)that could handle him, and the was Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, the famous Shadow Demon weapon, or Dark Arm.

Tsubaki followed meekly behind him, her violet eyes scanning the area curiously. She apologized to the two young kids in her sweet, if slightly high-pitched, voice, then stood at BlackStar's shoulder, her long black hair falling loose almost to the ground. She had a seriously hot body that could turn into any ninja weapon in the hands of BlackStar, a trait which made her as formidable in weapon form as she was gentle in her human form.

"New hair, Tsubaki?" I teased. She blushed. Don't get the wrong idea, though. Tsubaki blushed real easy, and we were just friends. She was awesome and all, but there never had been and never would be anything romantic there. BlackStar would never allow it, anyway. "Never thought I'd see the day when you didn't wear a ponytail."

"Hey!" BlackStar bellowed. "Don't steal my spotlight, Tsubaki! I'm the biggest guy here, don't ignore me!"

I barked a laugh.

"I didn't call you guys over to discuss your awesomeness, BlackStar," I sighed.

"Why did you call us, Soul?" asked Tsubaki quietly. "You sounded pretty…animated on the phone."

I snorted. Animated. Yeah, that was one way to put it. There was also pissed, disgusted, and irate beyond belief.

"Animated is not the word I would have used," said a cool voice from behind me. I turned to see Kid standing with both of his hands in his pockets, standing perfectly straight. Kid wasn't his full name, of course. His full name was Death the Kid, and he was the son of Lord Death. He was a completely insane, OCD freak that could cough up blood and pass out if his name wasn't neat enough on his paper just as surely as he could fire six bullets from his twin pistols and hit the _exact same spot _every single time. He was crazy, he was deadly. He was also my best friend.

"Yeah, he sounded pretty pissed if you ask me," said Kid's weapon partner, Liz Thompson. She was tall, with long-ish dishwater blonde hair and big blue eyes. She wasn't as curvy as Tsubaki, but that didn't mean she didn't have a figure, and she loved to flaunt it with her skin-tight jeans and red "sweater" that barely even covered her boobs.

"Hahahah!" laughed Liz's sister, Pati, and Kid's other weapon. "Soul sounded _mad_!"

Yeah, Kid had two weapon partners instead of one. If he didn't, his symmetry would be off when he fought and he'd have one of his OCD breakdowns. The Thompson sisters transformed into twin pistols, no matter how different their human forms. Kid had found them one night when the foolishly tried to mug him—their lives had been lived on the streets, fighting tooth and nail and pistol to scrape by—and he had offered them a place at his side. They accepted, and were way better for it.

Sure, Liz was really weird about make-up and clothes and hair and crap, and Pati, with her shorter stature and far more developed body, was beyond slow and spacy, but they were pretty observant when they wanted to be. They were actually really cool. It helped that their hearts were always in the right place, however they acted.

I had to shake off the irritation that both of my best friends had already found their partners, found them before school had even officially started. Kid had met Liz and Pati over the summer, BlackStar had met Tsubaki just last week, and they were already joined at the hip. And I was still on my own.

"So, Soul, what's the new issue?" asked BlackStar. "Lose all your money gambling on that fight yesterday?"

I snorted again.

"If that was it, Blackstar, I wouldn't have paid up."

"Ass," Liz muttered, at the same time that Tsubaki sighed the words: "Cheapskate."

"Then what _is_ it Soul?" Kid demanded. "We don't have all day, you know."

I ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Okay, here it is: remember that issue with Hiro being a player?"

In unison the guys groaned, and Liz and Pati snarled under their breath.

"Reaching up the skirt of anything female," Liz growled.

"But then we set him straight!" giggled Pati evilly. I remembered only too well how much fun the sisters had had while beating their lesson into Hiro.

"Apparently not," I sighed, "Because he convinced that new girl out on a date."

"We had a new kid?" BlackStar and Liz cried in unison. Neither of them ever paid attention in class. Not that I was much better. But it had been hard to ignore that girl when she came in, and was assigned the seat right next to mine. I shook away the thought.

"Yes, BlackStar, we did," Tsubaki said calmly. "What was her name? Mayra?"

"Maka," Harvar answered immediately, popping up out of nowhere with Ox right beside him. "Make Albarn. Said she was a scythe meister when I talked to her, although she didn't have a weapon with her."

Ox threw Harvar a look that plainly said he didn't approve of his weapon talking to the weaponless meister. Was he afraid Harvar would ditch him for the cute new girl? Nope, not exactly.

"I can't believe you talked to her and didn't tell me," Ox grumbled.

"What's up, Ox?" I taunted. Harvar was my friend, but I couldn't care less about the weirdo with the freaky hair. "Jealous? Got a crush on the new girl?"

And, unbelievably, Ox flushed bright red and looked away.

"What about Kim?" asked Kid after a moment.

"Hey, guys?" Liz interrupted whatever Ox had been about to say. "Two things. One: we're getting a little off-topic. Second: I'm pretty sure Hiro and Amanda just walked by."

"Her name's _Maka_," Harvar stressed, then froze. "Wait, what?"

"I _said,_" growled Liz, but this time I interrupted her.

"Where were they going?"

She looked down the sidewalk, and they all followed her gaze. There was Hiro, tall and lithe and pale blonde, walking down the path with his arm flung carelessly around the new girl's thin shoulders. I think I was the only one that noticed how she kept trying to inch away from his touch. Her sandy blonde hair was pulled into two pigtails, and her entire body was blocked from view by her long, sweeping black cloak. Only glimpses of her shoes were allowed by the jacket, black and silver steel-toed boots.

That was all that was visible from the back, but I knew how she looked form the front, too. Small, thin, with a body more like a guy's than a teenage girl's. Her legs were long and thin, with knobby knees that she didn't bother hiding. Her arms were skinny too—everything about her was slim—and her skin was pale. She was wearing a maroon, pleated skirt that fell halfway down her thighs, and a thin white button-up blouse beneath a yellow sweater vest. Then that long cloak and pigtails. Really, her appearance was comically like those characters you could make yourself on that stupid computer came Wizards 101. Geek. But her face was different. She had heart-shaped face, angular and defined, that actually made her resemble her age. Her nose was slender, her cheekbones high, and her eyebrows thin. Then there were her eyes. Bright, emerald green, and huge, framed by thick lashes. She could've been hot, if it weren't for her lack of anything resembling a body.

"Whoa…" Ox sighed, and Harvar and him stared after Maka. They must've gotten a look at her face before the two had passed.

"Wait, what's that place?" I demanded, zeroing in on the small, understated building that Hiro was leading the girl to.

"Some backwoods club. Doesn't even have a name," BlackStar said dismissively. "Tons of storage in the back rooms, though. No one ever goes back there, so that's where I usually…get…"

Understanding flared in BlackStar's eyes a second after it had hit the rest of us like a brick wall.

"Damnit!" Kid cursed. Harvar raised an eyebrow, but the shrewd look I'm sure he was giving Kid was lost behind his fancy sunglasses.

"Come on, guys!" Liz shouted. "Hiro's a dick that hasn't learned his lesson yet, and another girl's about ready to fall victim to—"

"Spare us the dramatics, Liz!" Pati snapped, surprising us all. "Let's _go_!"

Without another word, we were all sprinting down the darkening street, with the sun's dying laughter taunting us.

When we burst through the door, complete and utter chaos met us. People were gyrating grotesquely out of time to the pounding music. The multi-colored lights already threatened a pounding headache to accompany the loud music. Tables were spread against the walls, piled with drink glasses, some full, some empty, some halfway in between. People laughed too loudly, others shouting over the din to talk to someone right next to them.

_Now I see why Hiro picked _this_ place._ I thought darkly. _It's so loud, no one would hear a thing._

"BlackStar!" I shouted. He jerked around, keeping a hand on Tsubaki's arm so he didn't lose her. "Lead the way!"

He nodded and began to weave through the crowd, carefully avoiding the piles of sick from those who had tried dancing after having way too much alcohol. Sooner than anyone could've anticipated, considering the throng we had to fight through, we'd all made it to the Private: Staff Only door in the back wall. I waited until we were all there, then held up my fingers, counting down from three.

_Three…_

We all stiffened and listened. We thought we could hear something on the other side of the door. The thought of what it probably was sickened me, and from the green hue to Tsubaki's skin, she felt the same.

_Two…_

The sisters, Harvar, and Tsubaki all changed into their weapon forms just as the loud thumping sounds met our ears.

_One!_

We all shoved through the door, only to come to a confused and jumbled halt, running into each other and falling down a short flight of stairs. A surprising scene met our eyes, and I couldn't help the impressed smirk that spread across my face. Lying on the cold cement floor, clearly unconscious, with two awesome shiners and a bloody and broken nose, was Hiro. His carefully styled platinum hair was disheveled, three of his teeth missing from his gaping mouth. And standing over him, unscathed, was thin, wiry Maka, scowling profusely.

"Pig," she spat, then turned to look at us in our pile on the floor. "Can I help you?" Then she recognized a few of us, and to my great irritation, I wasn't one of the ones she recognized. "Harvar! Pati!"

In the confusion, everyone had changed back to their human forms. Harvar grinned at Maka upside-down. "Hey, little lady," he drawled. "Saw you and pretty boy come in here, and thought you might want a little back up. Apparently not."

Maka laughed and helped him up. "Nope. Thanks for the thought, though."

Her voice was warm and quiet, but I had no problem hearing it. Or the friendliness in it, directed at Harvar. For whatever reason, that set my teeth on edge

Groaning, we all clambered up slowly, and stepped forward one by one to introduce ourselves. Ox nearly tripped over himself to shake Maka's hand, going so far as to kneel and kiss it. She laughed a little and shooed him away, but not before I caught her twinge of unease at his contact. Hm…

"Hello," Tsubaki stepped forward. "I'm Tsubaki—"

"Nakatsukasa," Maka finished, then grinned. "I know. I made it my business to look up the Academy's only Dark Arm before I arrived. It's nice to meet you."

Tsubaki blushed and backed away, to be replaced by BlackStar.

"Yo!" he said eloquently(not). "I am the great BlackStar! Bask in my greatness, for I'm the biggest guy around, the brightest star, and one day I will—"

"Surpass god. I know that, too. I heard your speech in class when you got bored with the lecture."

BlackStar's jaw dropped. Someone beside Tsubaki had paid attention? I was stunned too. What the Hell was with this chick?

"Hey, I'm Liz, Pati's older sister," said Liz, shaking Maka's hand firmly. "I take it you've already met her."

Maka grinned and looked over at Liz's younger sister, with her shorter, paler hair and seriously more developed body—gah! Nosebleed!—and shrugged.

"I talked to her a little during break. You're like her idol."

Now it was Liz's turn to blush as she stepped back, to be replaced by Kid. Maka raised an eyebrow at Kid's black hair, sliced by three white stripes on the left side, but said nothing, and moved to shake his hand. Kid, however, cringed, and instead hugged Maka, taking her by surprise as both of his arms wrapped equally around her shoulders. Again Maka winced. He pulled back, and explained himself.

"Sorry, but a handshake is _so_ asymmetrical. Mean, really, only one hand grasps someone else's opposite hand—whoever thought of it was repulsive!"

"You're Death the Kid," guessed Maka. "Harvar told me you were kind of obsessed with symmetry."

"Ah…symmetry…" Kid got a faraway look in his amber eyes, no doubt fantasizing about perfect symmetry.

Maka's green gaze raked over all of them with a blazing intensity, like fire turned emerald, until it rested on where I slouched, half in the shadows. I waited for the flinch, or the cringe, when she saw my scarlet eyes, my white hair, my pointed teeth. She didn't cringe. She just looked at me, steadily, as if waiting for something. I could smack myself. _Duh!_ Of course she was waiting for something—my name. Wow, was I slow.

"Soul," I said gruffly. She nodded.

"I was sitting next to you today, right?"

I nodded.

"You fell asleep in the middle of BlackStar's speech." It wasn't a question.

I flinched, and looked over at BlackStar, waiting for the outraged shouts, but he wasn't paying attention. He was talking quietly to Tsubaki and Kid about something. Liz and Pati hovered at their meister's shoulders, listening intently to whatever the conversation was about. Maka let her piercing gaze look me over once, then she turned her attention to Harvar and Ox, who was practically begging for it. Trying to push Kim out of his mind with the new girl, I guess. Hell, I would too, if I were him. Maka already seemed way cooler than angry, pink-haired Kim. But why was Harvar so animated? I rarely ever even saw him smirk, or take his glasses off. I didn't even know what color his eyes were. But he was full-out laughing with Ox at something that Maka had said, and he'd shoved his glasses in his pocket. His eyes were icy blue, and appeared even brighter compared to his dark brown hair, pulled back into a short ponytail.

What in Hell's name was going on?

"Uhm, guys," I started, immediately catching everyone's attention. I especially felt that one green gaze burning holes in my head, but I ignored it. "Unless we wanna get caught and fined, I'd suggest we bailed, now."

Everyone nodded their consent and followed me out, without so much as a glance at Hiro's unconscious body on the ground. He'd come around, and then they could beat him to a pulp at school.

…

A week had gone by, and Maka changed everything at the Academy. Harvar was loud and happy and _talkative_, Ox didn't obsess about Kim like he used to, girls always wanted to hang out with her, and for some reason they were always asking her advice. She was already tied with Ox for the top of the grading curve, something that Ox was not overly thrilled about. He started to lose interest in her. Maka sat next to me every day in her assigned seat, wearing that weird ensemble all the time; the only thing that changed were the colors. One day it had been a navy blue skirt, and a sweater the color of a clear summer sky. She quickly became friends with Pati, Liz, Tsubaki, Kid, Harvar, and BlackStar. Hell, even Kilik and his partners started hanging out with her. There were only two people that couldn't care less about the new girl. Hiro, who had returned to Shibusen still battered from his attempted assault on Maka, did his absolute best to avoid her now.

And me. I can't say that I didn't notice her. I did. Hard not to when she sat by me and was friends with all of my friends. But I kept my distance as best I could. There was something weird about her, and in any case, I wasn't breaking my personal rules anymore. I'd already gotten close to more than enough people. Any more, and I knew my luck wouldn't hold. Besides, she had enough friends already. She didn't another one that was rude and cynical and surly all of the time.

Still, she tried to reach out to me in a way that not even my other friends had. She went out of her way to try and include me in their conversations when I was around, tried to start up conversation with me directly. Why the Hell did she keep doing that? It made it harder and harder for me to keep my resolve. She was nice to me. She didn't flinch whenever she looked into my scarlet eyes, the way so many others did. She didn't even blink when I flashed her my serrated teeth.

She was a weird one.

"Hey, Soul!" BlackStar called. I looked around; he was with Tsubaki and Kid's weapons and _Maka_, and Harvar. That was strange. I looked around, but I couldn't find Ox anywhere. Harvar rarely left his side.

"What?" I said, walking over.

"Are you coming to Kid's party tonight?" Liz demanded.

Oh, crap, I'd completely forgot! Tonight was Kid's birthday party!

"I—uh—yeah, 'course I am!"

Liz snorted.

"Yeah, right. You forgot again, didn't you?"

I looked away, scowling instead of answering. Pati sighed.

"Don't worry, Soul," said the shorter Thompson sister. "We got a present for him from you. We kinda expected you'd forget."

"Why?" I demanded indignantly. "What makes you say that?"

"Nothing!" Tsubaki jumped in quickly. "You've just seemed a little distracted lately."

I sighed and rubbed the heel of my hand against my temple, growling under my breath. I _had_ been distracted, that was no lie, though I was loathe to admit why. I didn't even understand it myself.

Liz turned to Maka, who had stood silently beside Harvar while the others talked. "You're coming too, right Maka?"

Maka blinked, as if not understanding Liz.

"I…What?"

"I asked if you were coming," Liz repeated patiently.

Maka looked lost for words. Her bright green eyes shone.

"Really, Liz?" she asked. "You want me to come?"

Liz scoffed and threw an easy arm over Maka's shoulders. "'Course, Albarn. Wouldn't ask for kicks. You're our friend."

Maka smiled, eyes still shining, and nodded. "Then yeah! I'll definitely be there!"

Liz was about to let her go when Pati spoke up. "Do you have anything to wear?"

Maka frowned, confused. "Um…I have what I'm wearing now…"

Liz shook her head and clucked her tongue in disapproval. "Now, Maka, this is a _party_. You can't go to a party looking like a schoolgirl. _Please _tell me you have something resembling party attire."

"I have a dress for church…" trailed Maka uncertainly. Liz looked about ready to have an aneurism, and I barely bit back a laugh.

"I wouldn't have told Liz that if I were you, Maka," I said before I realized what I was doing. She looked at me with that bright gaze of hers, sending shivers through me. It was like she could see straight through me.

"Why not?"

"Because now she's going to drag you to our house," Kid spoke up, popping out of nowhere much like Harvar had a tendency to do. "And primp you until you will never recognize yourself."

"Got that right," growled Liz, almost savagely, and did indeed start dragging the poor girl after her in the direction of Kid's house. I snorted in amusement, then turned on my heel and kept walking to my apartment, hoping I hadn't actually gotten rid of that pinstripe suit I'd gotten from my brother like I'd been planning. I would never be able to deal with Elizabeth Thompson's rage if I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt.

….

"Hey, Soul," said Ox, leaning against the balcony railing in a posture that mirrored my own slouch.

"Mm?" I grunted, eyes roving over the surprisingly large crowd of people in the banquet hall. The sisters must have invited the whole of Death City!

"Have you seen Harvar?"

I looked around at him. "No, why? Need a dance partner?" I mocked.

Ox rolled his eyes and ignored the dig. "No, I just haven't seen him, and he said he'd be here. I was just wondering."

"Hmph," was my response.

I was about to say something else when Tsubaki appeared on the balcony, smiling warmly. "Come on, you two, it's a party. Come and have some fun. There's a piano, Soul, you should play."

Instantly I stiffened and scowled. "No thanks. I'll come in, but I'm not playing."

Tsubaki sighed, but shrugged and ushered both me and Ox inside. The music playing was something Spanish, with a really fast, upbeat rhythm. People in the center of the room were dancing.

"Wanna watch?" Ox asked, and I followed him up to the edge of the throng, where we could watch the dancing, and I froze. There was only one pair dancing, dominating the entire floor.

"Hey, Ox…" I said slowly. Ox had already been distracted by something pink that ended up being a balloon.

"Hm?"

"I found Harvar."

He was out on the floor, looking surprisingly slick in his snow-white tux with its pale green undershirt. His tie was green, too, albeit a shade darker. It was almost the same color as his dance partner's eyes.

I hadn't seen Maka Albarn arrive. Liz had done her job of primping the new girl a little too well. Her hair was pulled half up, with a very carefully messy look. The make-up was minimal but did wonders to bring out the girl's eyes and make her lips look darker and fuller. And the _dress_. It was a tight, strapless, forest green sheath, shimmering with every movement, skimming down her legs to just above her knees. It hugged and accented curves I hadn't even seen on that girl! A product, no doubt, of her loose-fitting clothing, because oh, boy, did she have some curves. She was nowhere near as flat chested as I had thought, and her hips were nowhere near as underdeveloped as they appeared beneath that pleated skirt and billowing black jacket. She also wore black heels with straps that climbed up her calves and cinched just below the knee, accenting her legs nicely.

She was damn sexy. She was also dancing with Harvar.

Their bodies were pressed so close together, you couldn't have fit a slip of paper between their chests. They danced across the floor with a grace that was almost ethereal, twisting and dipping and, in Maka's case, spinning. People hooted and hollered, but I was rooted to the spot, completely silent as I watched Harvar and Maka in their erotic dance. Something stirred in my chest, something hot and tight and painful.

As the song approached its end, Harvar's hands slipped down to her waist, and their dance took a new turn. Maka gave a snake twist of her hips against Harvar's, and then spun quickly, Harvar keeping her hand and pulling her back into him. He dipped her, and she bent one leg and kept an arm around his shoulders. As the song came to an end, I was all set to leave, but then I saw something that caused an entirely unexplainable surge of heat to coarse through me. Harvar closed the small distance between their lips, and he was kissing Maka. Wolf whistles and cheers filled the hall as the two dancers locked lips.

The two broke apart, flushed. I scowled and was again ready to turn away when her emerald eyes captured mine. It was almost as though she was waiting for something again. Then her gaze sparked, and something flitted in its depths. Was that fear? I could assume that she'd finally reacted to my appearance, but she'd had a week of not even blinking at my differences. But that look in her eyes definitely said she was afraid of something.

Harvar pulled her back to him for another short kiss, and I tore myself away from that scene, once more going out onto the balcony.

What had that scene made me feel? What was it about seeing Harvar kiss the new girl, who always hid what she had beneath unflattering clothes, that set something growling inside me? I shook my head. This was so not cool! I was letting myself get all hot and bothered over some small, sandy-haired geek who dressed like she was a character in a computer game, or worse, like someone from a _manga _story! The very idea would normally have made me shudder with revulsion, but on the girl, on Maka Albarn, the look worked. Why did Harvar, quiet, reserved Harvar, have to figure this out before me? Why had it taken seeing Harvar dancing so intimately with Maka to make me see how special she was? How graceful, how beautiful? Damnit, that guy was making me so fucking jealous I—

Whoa, whoa, whoa, _what_? Had I just said I was _jealous_? Of _Harvar_? Over a geeky schoolgirl like Maka Albarn?

Okay, that was it. Time to sort through my freaky, twisted thoughts. There was something different about that girl. That much I'd already admitted to myself. It was time I came to terms with the _real_ reason that I had wanted to avoid her for the past week. Maybe the reason that I'd tried to have nothing to do with her stemmed from the fact that I actually wanted to have everything to do with her.

I mean, she was always pretty from the neck up. More than pretty, she really was beautiful. But in that dress, hugging her every curve, she was downright stunning. Gorgeous. Okay, this was not sounding cool at all. But I forced myself to continue.

She was smart. _Really_ smart, to be competing with Ox for the top grade of the class. She read a lot, which was boring, but I guess she had to learn from somewhere, since half the things Professor Stein put on his tests were never in his lectures.

She was tough. She'd proven as much when she'd kicked the crap outa Hiro single-handedly. But she could also take any demeaning remark and spin it around, refusing to let it affect her, instead twisting it so that it backfired on the speaker. She didn't mind being different; in fact she thrived on it.

And, most impressive, and yet most understated, she was _kind_. Sure, she might toss around fighting words, but only if someone had done something to deserve them. Maka seemed to care about everyone, wanting to make people happy. To make them feel included. She'd even gone so far as to try and make _me_ feel part of something.

Yeah, okay. I had a major crush on the new girl.

….

_My name is Soul Eater Evans. I play the piano. I live in Death City. My family disowned me . I have five good friends. Two other friends. I go to the DWMA. The DWMA got a new student a week and a half ago. I'm obsessed with the new girl. So are half the boys in our class, especially after Kid's birthday party, when the girl had showed up in a dress just meant to break necks, and started dancing with Harvar, Ox's weapon, that backstabbing spear of a—_

I sat up abruptly, crossing out the words on the paper and shaking my head. Damnit. Damnit, damnit, damnit! This wasn't helping! This was only pissing me off more! This was my third attempt at simply writing down things I knew, starting from the least complicated to the most complicated. It was supposed to calm me down—it had all the other times I tried this technique—but it wasn't working! And worse still, it was a class assignment. Sure, I could've written about anything, but this one little thing was consuming my mind until I all but had steam issuing out my ears. I glanced at my previous attempts, just barely visible beneath the lines I had scratched over them.

_My name is Soul Eater Evans. I play the piano. I live in Death City. My family disowned me. I have seven friends. Well, six, since right now I don't know if I should count that stupid damn spear Harvar—_

_My name is Soul Eater Evans. I play the piano. I live in Death City. My family disowned me. I have five good friends. Two other friends. I go to the DWMA. The DWMA got a new student a week and a half ago, and every time I see her I get this weird feeling and I get pissed because Harvar's always around her and—_

I felt completely ridiculous. Entirely stupid. I was blowing the whole thing way out of proportion. Like I was the first guy to get a crush and get jealous when some other guy came along and grabbed her first? I wasn't unique. I would just have to suck it up. Sighing, entirely aware that Maka was shooting concerned glances at me, I pulled out a fresh piece of paper and gave the assignment another shot.

My name is Soul Eater Evans. I play the piano. I live in Death City. My family disowned me . I have five good friends. Two other friends. I go to the DWMA. The DWMA got a new student a week and a half ago. I'm obsessed with the new girl. So are half the boys in our class. One guy in particular seems to hold her attentions. I'm jealous. I'll cope. It'll pass.

There. Much better. And just in time. The bell rang just as I put my pencil down.

"Alright, class, pass your papers to your right. The people at the end of each row will turn them into me. Oh!" cried Ms Marie, as if she'd just been burned. "I almost forgot. I know some of you don't yet have partners."

There were mocking whispers meant for my ears, and confused and sympathetic ones directed at Maka.

"This weekend, we're holding our annual event, in which meisters and weapons can be formally introduced and get to know each other. If you're interested, please come down to my desk and get a slip with more details. You're dismissed!"

As one, most of the class rose and left. However, the people at the end of each row stood with a pile of papers and took them down to Ms. Marie's desk. Since Kid was gone, I was at the end of the row, and I tried to make my haphazard pile of papers neater. That was when I realized that Maka's was on top. I paused, curious.

Part of me knew it was beyond uncool to look at anybody's assignment, especially a girl's, especially one with the potential to be so personal, but I couldn't help it.

Her handwriting was neat. Way neater than mine.

_My name is Maka Albarn.. I am fifteen years old. I play softball. I love art. I got that from my mama, before the divorce._

Divorce?

_My papa and mama fight. A lot. My papa cheats on mama. Finally she demanded a divorce, and somehow papa got custody and I moved here with him. He's Lord Death's new Death Scythe._

No way! The new Death Scythe was Maka Albarn's father? That crazy, obnoxious old man? I felt bad for her.

_I go to the DWMA. I've made a lot of friends so far, which surprises me._

Huh? Why?

_People usually won't come near me if they know about my parents. They act like the issue is contagious or something. So I keep it to myself._

…Pricks…

_There's this one guy I kind of like, too. He's always really quiet and reserved, though, so I don't know how he feels, and I don't really want to broach the subject. I don't really think he actually likes me at all, though._

I snorted. She should know how Harvar felt. He could never take his eyes off her. That and the fact that he'd kissed her at Kid's party…

_Then there's Harvar._

Whoa, backpedal. She wasn't already _talking_ about Harvar?

_He's really sweet and funny, and I can tell he really likes me, but I don't really feel the same way. I just want to be friends, but I don't know how to let him down easy._

…My mind fogged up. So she didn't like Harvar. She did like some other guy. Someone quiet and reserved. Someone she thought didn't like her at all. Someone that maybe barely realized that she existed. _Who_? Almost every guy here had been fawning all over her at some point; everyone definitely knew she existed. She didn't seem like the kind of girl that would miss the guys' obvious attention. Maka really was smart: she wouldn't say something like that unless she'd observed that this was how it was. I ran through all the guys in our class, and even some of the girls that I knew swung both ways, and drew up a blank. They'd all made it quite clear that they knew she was there. They'd all been clamoring to introduce themselves first. So who did she mean?

"Soul?" Ms Marie said concernedly. I snapped my head up, having forgotten where I was. "Is everything okay?"

I blinked hard several times and nodded. "Y-yeah."

Ms Marie sighed and gestured for me to join her at her desk. I straightened, stowed my stuff away, and walked down stiffly, handing her the papers.

"Soul, I want you to take one of these slips," she said, handing out one of the flyers for the event this weekend. Grudgingly I accepted it, planning to toss it out as soon as I was a safe distance away from her fists. "And _keep_ it. I know you well enough by now to know what you're thinking. But Soul, you can't skulk around forever without a partner. I can tell you don't want one, after… Well, you need a meister to graduate, Soul, and I want to see that happen."

"So eager to get rid of me already?" I said dryly. She flushed.

"Oh, no! That's not what I meant. I just—I just wanted to—"

"I got it," I sighed, stuffing the flyer in my jacket pocket. "I'll be there."

Ms Marie looked relieved, but then handed me another one.

"C'mon, lady!" I griped. "I just said I'd be there! Why're you shoving—"

"That's not for you, Soul," she interrupted calmly. "I want you to give this to Maka Albarn. She left at the head of the class, before she could get one. I don't think she wanted to be singled out."

I stiffened, then sighed and took the second flyer as well. I turned on my heel and walked to the classroom door; in the doorway I looked over my shoulder to see Ms Marie already comparing two papers with a knowing, almost indulgent smile.


	5. Better Than One

Ms Marie addressed a few of the papers that she felt needed attention. She never put out names, and thank Death, because she read both mine and Maka's, excluding bits that people could use to pin on us. The day passed by quickly; we learned how long Kishin eggs take to form, and then how long they take to become a true Kishin from Sid—our blue zombie teacher with _huge_ teeth—and we dissected some kind of bird with a weird name in Professor Stein's class. He's the screw head, by all definitions. Then the week was over, and I was dreading Saturday, where I would have to sit and wait as meister after meister rejected me. Who knows? I probably wouldn't even have any meisters interested in me to begin with.

…..

I had a _partner_. I had a motherfucking _meister_! Listening to Ms Marie was the best thing I'd ever done! And who was my meister? Take a wild damn guess! Maka Albarn was now, officially, a one-star scythe meister. Hell to the yeah!

Oh, I got so many dirty looks from other guys as Maka registered us as partners. Harvar scowled and looked about ready to breath fire. I half expected steam to start issuing from Ox's ears. So, he wasn't quite as over Maka as he appeared. Well, he was a lot more convincing with Maka than with Kim.

But, before I got carried away, I had a few things to cover with her. So, when she was finished with the registration and received her student body card, I pulled her out of the office-type structure and into the main school building, taking her up flight after flight of stairs until we came out on the final landing. I'd have expected her to start huffing and puffing about half way, but as it was, now she was barely breaking a sweat, her breathing only a little heavier than normal.

"Oh, _wow_!" she exclaimed, running to the stone railing on the balcony and hanging over it. I followed her slowly, watching as her eyes grow wide as they took in all of Death City, lit by the light of the dying sun. It was a great view, an a quiet place to think until Blackstar showed up—which was rare. I liked to come up here when I needed privacy. "This is amazing!"

"Yeah, I like coming up here," I said quietly, leaning on the rail beside her. She glanced over at me, but I kept my eyes out over the city.

"Why'd you bring me up here?" she asked, suddenly hesitant. I lifted one shoulder; let it drop.

"Just wanted to talk without so many prying ears," I said nonchalantly.

"So talk," she urged. I had her full attention. I sighed, and, still not looking at her, started talking.

"The other night, at Kid's party, when you looked at me, you looked afraid," I said, picking the thought that, for whatever reason, was first and foremost in my mind. "Why?"

She looked back out over the city, shivering a little. Without thinking I shrugged out of my black leather jacket and handed it to her; she took it with a cautious smile and wrapped it around her delicate frame.

"Because…" She took a shaky breath. "Because I could feel your soul's wavelength. It was really hot, completely chaotic. You were furious about something. It made me a little nervous when you were looking at me with your wavelengths so out of wack," she confessed. I blinked and finally turned my head to look at her.

"You could sense my soul wavelength?"

She nodded, not looking at me.

"Even before we became partners?"

She nodded again.

"How?"

"Soul Perception," she sighed. "I inherited it from my mama."

Her mother. The one her dad had cheated on. The very thought found me grinding my teeth, but as soon as I noticed I stopped, reining in my emotions. If she could sense my soul before, she'd definitely be able to sense it now.

"Was that all you wanted to—"

"If you don't like him," I interrupted without thinking, "Don't let him think you do."

She blinked in surprise, and turned to meet my eyes at last.

"Huh?"

I grit my teeth.

"If you don't like Harvar, don't lead him on. He's a cool guy."

She frowned. "How…" Then she shook her head. "Doesn't matter," she sighed. "I already took care of it."

Ah. So _that_ was why Harvar had been shooting sharper daggers than would be warranted from his eyes

I almost asked her about her parents, about how she felt about the divorce, before I stopped myself. I shouldn't know about that at all. I'd almost given myself away just by giving her that Harvar "advice".

"Why do you not like it when other guys touch you?" the words left my mouth before they even _began_ to process in my brain. She whipped around, her green eyes going glacial. But, she took a deep, calming breath, and her face gentled. A little.

"You're the first person that noticed," she admitted.

I waited quietly.

"Well, my papa, he was a bit of a player. He cheated on my mama all the time. So mama got a divorce. She went to tour the world, but not before she talked to me." Her gaze was sad. "She sat me down on my bed and kneeled in front of me. She said 'Maka, men are pigs. All of them. Never trust one.' Then she left. I took her words to heart. After having a father as womanizing as mine, it's really hard for me to trust guys."

Silence.

"So…you're taking a real leap, taking me as your partner…" I said quietly. She nodded, and I gave her a lopsided grin. "Thanks Maka."

She smiled too, a little more reserved than me, but still, it was something. There was another moment of comfortable silence while we looked out over the city, watching as the sun dipped below the horizon and it was plunged into twilight.

"So, am I moving in with you?" asked Maka out of nowhere.

"W-what?" I stammered, before kicking myself internally. Stuttering was so not cool!

Maka made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat, then hopped up and sat on the railing, looking down at my face.

"Am I moving in with you?" She repeated. "I may be new, but I read the handbook. Weapons and their meisters are encouraged to live together, because that makes it easier to learn about each other, and lets it be known early on whether their wavelengths are compatible or not. Living in the close proximity will either strengthen their resonance, or—"

"Or botch it," I finished. "Yeah, I know that." Actually, I didn't know that, but Hell if I'd admit it. Something told me that she'd be proving me wrong plenty in the future already. I didn't have to give her any head starts.

"So, I repeat: Am I moving in with you?" she said, for the third time.

I stared into her big green eyes for a long time, momentarily distracted by the flecks of different shades in them. They ranged from emerald to olive to lime, dappling her eyes like sunlight dappled the ground of a thick forest, fighting to shine through the green shield. Whoa, whoa, slow down. I was supposed to be ignoring that draw.

"Hello? Soul?" She waved a hand in front of my face.

"Y-yeah," I said quickly. "Yeah, you can move in with me. I can help you move your stuff over to my apartment tomorrow."

She snorted and slid her backpack onto the ground between them.

"That's everything I have."

I stared. Sure, it was a pretty big backpack, and looked to be completely full, but everything she _owned_?

"That's it?"

She fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Well, I have a photo album in my locker, and another set of clothes, but yeah, that's it."

Really? Did her dad really neglect his daughter so thoroughly? As if reading my thoughts, Maka held up her hands.

"It's not like papa abuses me or anything. I just live with what I have. I'm fine with not having much. I'm not defending him!" she added when I raised an eyebrow. She'd made it no secret that she loathed her father. "But he doesn't disregard me entirely. I have clothes, I have books, that's all I need."

I frowned, but didn't question further. Without a word, I hefted her bag over my shoulder and started down the stairs. I heard her hurrying to catch up with me as I walked down the stairs to find her locker.

"You can get your photo album, if you want," I told her, stopping when she pointed out her locker in the main hall on the first floor. She nodded and quickly unlocked the door; when it swung open, a flood of envelopes cascaded down to the floor, and I froze. She just rolled her eyes and knelt to pick them up.

"What're those?" I asked, a little more harshly than I'd intended. She glanced up at me, her brow furrowing.

"Partner requests, mostly. Why?" she inquired, gathering them all in her arms and taking them to the nearest trash can, tossing them all away. I looked away, embarrassed.

"Just curious," I muttered. She studied me for a moment, then shrugged and pulled a large album out of her locker, shutting the door.

"Ready?" I asked her, forcing my voice to a friendlier tone. She nodded, and I led her away from the school, to my small flat a few streets away.

…..

She lived there for several months. We both learned quickly. We both became friends. Best friends. We overcame obstacles I didn't imagine could be overcome, but with her beside me, things I'd never dared to dream were suddenly possible. With her, a strong, capable meister, at my side, my aspirations of becoming a Death Scythe became more than a child's fantasies. My fears of never really being able to trust anyone were put to rest by her.

Maka Albarn was always there when I needed her, maybe not always when I _wanted_ her—hey, I was a guy, she was a girl, we got on each other's nerves; that was a given—but when I needed her, she was always right by my side. My friends couldn't hide their glee that I'd finally taken a meister, that I'd finally found someone to confide wholeheartedly in. They'd never been offended that I didn't share everything with them, but they had wished I would speak in confidence with _someone_. I found that someone in Maka Albarn, one-star Scythe meister. And, as I learned later, she felt the exact same way. I was someone she could trust. Trust with her life, her secrets.

….

I bolted upright in bed, gasping, and was on my feet in an instant. Maka's soul wavelength had spiked, jerking me out of my sleep. Her pain pulsed into me, and I dashed into her room, arm turning to a scythe, ready to kill anything that was hurting my meister. However, when I burst into her room, I found no one but her, writhing and crying out weakly in her sleep. Her comforter was on the floor by her bed, her sheets tangled around her legs. I relaxed and allowed my arm to change back to normal before crossing over to Maka's bedside. She was covered in a sheen of sweat, her eyes screwed up. Her sandy hair was spread out over the pillow in a tangled mess.

I sat on the edge of her mattress and leaned over, placing my hands carefully on her shoulders. Gently, I shook her.

"Maka," I said softly. She didn't answer; just let out a mewling whimper that tore at my heart. "Maka, wake up."

She cried out again, and her cry almost sounded like my name. I shook my head. It was…I glanced at the clocked. 1:36 in the morning. I was imagining things, surely. I shook her again, a little harder.

"_Maka_," I said firmly. She sat bolt upright, nearly sending me sprawling to the floor. As it was, she slammed her forehead into mine and I leaned back, swearing and rubbing the point of contact. "_Ow_," I groaned. There would most definitely be a bruise there tomorrow. She had a _really _hard head.

She echoed me, raising her fingers gingerly to the lump that was already starting to form. "Your head _hurts_," she whined.

I snorted. "So does yours."

She looked up at me, and her eyes were shining. Something told me it wasn't from the collision, either. I softened. "Are you alright? Must've been a helluva nightmare."

Her bottom lip trembled, and, without warning, she flung her arms around my waist and buried her face in my bare chest. For a second, I was stunned, frozen. But after the initial shock, I returned her embrace, holding her gently as she cried herself out. Softly I whispered to her that it was alright, that she was okay, that it was just a dream. I rested my chin on her crown and rocked her back and forth, until finally the tears slowed, and she fell asleep still in my arms. I looked down at her, curled against me, and felt something inside me heat up.

Unconsciously Maka snuggled closer. I chuckled and laid down on her bed, pulling her carefully with me so I wouldn't wake her up.

In my mind, a song I'd been listening to earlier started to replay.

_I remember what you wore on our first day  
>You came into my life, and I thought, hey<br>You know, this could be something  
>Cause everything you do and words you say<br>You know that it all takes my breath away,  
>And now I'm left with nothing…<em>

Quietly, I started to sing the lyrics.

_So maybe it's true, that I can't live without you  
>And maybe two, is better than one<br>But there's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life  
>And you've already got me comin' undone<br>And I'm thinking two, is better than one…_

It was a good song. One of my favorites, not that anyone else would ever find out. No one knew I listened to anything but rock and hip-hop. I'd die of embarrassment if they found out that I listened to stuff that could be _mistaken_ for country.

_I remember every look upon your face  
>The way you roll your eyes, the way you taste<br>You make it hard for breathing  
>Cause when I close my eyes and drift away<br>I think of you and everything's okay  
>And finally now believing…<em>

This song struck a nerve when I heard it on the radio a week ago. It was too close to how Maka made me feel. It was almost unnerving, but at the same time, when it was put into music, it made it easier for me to think over. I had an affinity for music; it helped me focus and express myself. When I heard this song, _Two is Better than One_, it crossed my mind that maybe it wasn't so stupid, or embarrassing, that I liked the new girl. That I kind of wanted to be more than friends. I'd always been a loner. Yeah, I had Blackstar and the rest of my friends, but it just wasn't the same.

_And maybe it's true, that I can't live without you  
>Well maybe two, is better than one<br>But there's so much time, to figure out, the rest of my life  
>And you've already got me comin' undone<br>And I'm thinking two, is better than one_

_I remember what you wore on our first day  
>You came into my life<br>And I thought hey_

_Maybe it's true, that I can't live without you  
>Maybe two, is better than one<br>But there's so much time, to figure out, the rest of my life  
>And you've already got me comin' undone<br>And I'm thinking_

_Ooh, I can't live without you  
>Cause baby two, is better than one<br>There's so much time, to figure out, the rest of my life  
>But I've figured out with all that's said and done,<br>Two, is better than one  
>Two, is better than one…<em>

Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I thought I heard something. The faintest, but sweetest sound. Like a soft hum, mimicking the song I'd just sung.

….

It's been a year since Maka Albarn first started at the DWMA. Almost a year since she became my meister. A year where my feelings just kept growing.

"Hey Maka!" called Liz as we walked up to the basketball court. Maka turned and waved. Liz was standing with Pati and Kid by the hoop at the far end.

"Hi Liz! Hey Pati, Kid!" Maka called, veering toward the trio. I sighed and followed Maka, hands in my pockets.

"Your birthday party's tomorrow!" Pati shouted excitedly.

"But my birthday's on Saturday," she said, confused. I blinked. Her birthday? She'd never told me when it was—how did Liz and Pati know?

"Yes, but tomorrow is Wednesday, the exact middle of the week," said Kid dreamily. "It cuts the week into perfect halves. Three days on either side."

Liz rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to Maka and me.

"Kid's setting it up. Did you actually get a present this time, Soul? We didn't have time to get a backup," Liz hissed. I nodded, relieved that I'd already had a gift ready for whenever her birthday was. Liz let out a long breath. "Good."

"He'll get it from the attic when we get back," said Maka with a grin. I tugged on one of her pigtails, and she yelped. "What was that for?"

"For telling Liz that you saw me hiding your present," I answered coolly, returning my hands to my pockets. She scowled, and a book appeared out of nowhere.

"MAKA CHOP!" she shouted, and suddenly I was crumpled on the ground with a huge tome lodged painfully in my skull.

"Ouch! Damnit, Maka! What the Hell?" I groaned, holding my head. She sniffed, then turned to Liz.

Maka had matured some physically. While I'd realized last year that she wasn't quite as curve-less as she appeared in her normal clothing, she did nothing to accent the figure she had. But now, there was no way she could really hide it. Her chest had filled out, and I didn't just know that from looking—we took shifts on who did what chores, and I was doing laundry last night when I saw one of her bras, and it was labeled 36 C. I stemmed the slight nosebleed. Her hips had developed too, accenting her tiny tucked-in waist. Her legs were still long and lithe, and still flaunted by her short skirts. She still dressed the same; white blouse, colored sweater, long black cloak, and the steel-toed boots.

"So, Maka, do you actually have something decent to wear this time?" Liz demanded. She'd been making Maka buy dress after dress after damn dress, insisting that, only a couple weeks later, the one they'd bought was out of season. Maka couldn't keep up with Liz to save her life.

"I've still got the black one from Pati's party," answered Maka. I remembered that one—it was form-fitting, with a single shoulder strap and a really low back. It was covered with black sequins, and hung to just below her knees. Kid cringed.

"No!" He glowered at Maka as though she'd said something horribly indecent. "It only had _one_ shoulder strap! It's an abomination! Liz, you'll take her to find a proper dress, one with _symmetry_."

I rolled my eyes with everyone else, but still followed as Liz grabbed Maka and led her away. "I'll kill him yet for his OCD, but I agree. You can't wear that dress. It'll drive him crazier than he is already, and we don't need that at your birthday party."

Maka sighed but nodded as Liz pushed her into a store called _Urban Chic_. With a glance around to make sure nobody I knew was watching—cool guys do _not_ get caught in places like this—I followed them.

Maka was sitting patiently on one of the seats over in the shoes while Liz tore through the racks, muttering to herself.

"Hm…This one maybe…Definitely not _that_…Who would ever where that in _public_? She'll have to try this one on…"

I strolled over and sat by Maka, leaning against the wall behind the seat. The leather-covered stool type thing was way small, and to fit us both on it required a lot of contact. Our legs and hips brushed, but I couldn't care less.

"Hope you didn't have anything else planned for the day. Liz'll keep you out until closing time," I snickered.

Maka sighed, and I noticed that she was fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. I frowned and stilled her hand with mine. She looked up; for a second I was lost in her emerald eyes, but I blinked away the haze.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. I raised an eyebrow and she looked away. "I just wish Liz would let me pick out my own clothes. The stuff she picks…"

"She's got an eye for what looks good," I pointed out. "She does pretty damn well at making you look good."

Maka blushed, but started to fiddle with her skirt again. Again I stilled her hand.

"That's just it though…" she grumbled. "The stuff she picks _does_ look really good. I really like the dresses and shoes she picks. But…"

"But…" I prompted.

"But it's not _me_!" She burst. "I feel so awkward all the time, wearing those skin-tight sheaths or those super low-cut jersey dresses! People always stare, and it just makes me feel _weird_."

I blinked. I would've thought all girls basked in that kind of attention. But then, Maka was not all girls.

"Well, why don't you tell Liz that?" I asked.

"Tell me what?" Liz popped up from behind one of the clothing racks nearby.

"That you should give Maka more say in what she wears," I said blandly.

Liz cocked her head to the side, then jerked her head, gesturing for Maka to join her.

"Well, come on then, Albarn," she laughed. Maka threw me a grateful look, then stood and helped Liz sort through the dresses she'd picked so far. Liz protested more than once when Maka vetoed some of her favorites, but Maka reminded her calmly that they were shopping for something for _her, _not for Liz.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. Only women could care so friggin much about _clothes_.

"Soul?" Liz said, appearing right over me. I jumped in surprise and knocked my forehead on her chin. She gave me a sour look, then pulled me up to my feet. "Come on, Soul, you need a suit."

"Wha-I already _have_ one!" I blustered. I looked around, hoping for Maka's support, but she was checking out; I just barely caught a glimpse of fabric so black that it reflected green and blue before it was stuffed unceremoniously into a bag.

"You need a new one!" She insisted. "The one you have now is so old and worn, and it barely fits you!"

I frowned. My suit was perfectly fine! It wasn't that worn out; you couldn't tell from looking at it. And it fit just right. Okay, maybe it was a little tight in the shoulders, but it didn't warrant a new one.

"You're _going_ to get a new suit, even if I have to force you into it myself!" Liz threatened. Maka returned and was looking between the two of us, amused. The bag was see-through, but I couldn't make out anything but the color again.

"You, Maka, are heading over to my house, and you'll be spending the night," Liz growled. "_And_ you're coming to my house after school, since you'd never do anything with your hair or face on your own."

I snorted, and got a look from both girls.

"You go ahead, back to Gallows Manor, Maka," Liz instructed. Maka nodded, smiling, and left without a word. Liz turned back to me, giving a cool, calculating look.

_Death help me!_ I thought.

…

Maka was quiet today, lost in thought. When school was over, she barely spared me a few parting words before Liz whisked her away.

"See you at the party, Soul!" she called as Liz took her arm and towed her off. I laughed and held up a hand.

…

"Ooh, look at Soul big sis!" Pati exclaimed, looking me up and down. I wrinkled my nose. The suit wasn't bad—it was a lot like my old one. Black, but with dark green pinstripes instead of red, and an equally dark green undershirt. But it wasn't my old one, and I wasn't a huge fan of new clothes.

"Soul!" Liz shouted, and I winced. Damn. I'd been hoping she wouldn't notice. "Where's the rose?"

She told me that, under penalty of death, I was supposed to wear a white rose in the breast pocket on the jacket. But I hadn't. It looked stupid.

"I forgot," I said, shrugging nonchalantly. Liz looked confusingly furious. It was just a flower for Death's sake; why did she look about ready to rip out my throat and feed it to a Kishin egg? Then she sighed, shoulders slumping.

"Go right on in, Soul," said Kid, ignoring his weapons. As I passed, I heard Liz and Kid muttering quietly.

"…supposed to _match_!" hissed Liz furiously.

"It's just a flower," said Kid evenly.

I frowned and kept walking, right into the mass of people. There were even more people than _last_ year. How they all fit in the Academy's ballroom defied the laws of physics. Not that I knew anything about physics. I edge along the wall until I found the balcony. For some reason, no one ever occupied the balcony, but I wasn't complaining. I didn't have to compete for air out here. It was usual a guarantee that I could be alone out here. But as I turned to look out over the railing, I realized that usual was the operative word. Because I wasn't alone this time around. She was leaning out over the railing, looking out over the city much as she had when I took her up onto the roof.

She wore a black dress of modest length, about to her knees, that clung to her figure without acting as a second skin. She fidgeted, and the dress shimmered in the starlight, reflecting blues and greens like a raven's feathers. The dress had long, off the shoulder sleeves, with evenly spaced slits going down the length of the arm. The entire back from the waist up was sheer black lace, just thin enough to show some of her fair skin. Dark emerald green flats encased her feet, black lace stretched over them. Sand-colored hair, moonlight reflecting off of it to make it look like platinum, fell in ringlets to her shoulders. Small white flowers were pinned carefully into her hair. Young roses, it looked like.

"Hey," I said hesitantly, stepping out. She jumped and yelped in surprise, as though someone had literally shocked her, and spun around. I blinked. I'd thought Liz had done a good job last year at Kid's party, but compared to now, that was like little kid play time. The eye shadow was in shades of green, fading out with a really smoky quality. Her eyelashes were darker and thicker than usual. Her cheeks had a rosy glow. And her lips, a pale pink, were covered with a sheer gloss. Damn.

"H-hey," she stuttered, then flushed and looked away. I walked up and leaned against the rail beside her.

"You know, it's a party," I said airily. "Your party. Shouldn't you be out there socializing?"

She bit her lip, looking into the hall at all the crowds of people.

"I'm not a big party person," she confessed.

"Then why didn't you tell Kid that?"

"I did. Liz insisted," Maka sighed.

I rolled my eyes, scowling at nothing in particular. Liz really needed to loosen up and let people make their own choices. Thinking of Liz, I remembered her words as I passed her coming in. _Supposed to _match_!_

I looked at Maka, then at me. Did Liz mean us? Our outfits certainly commented each other. The green was a recurring theme, definitely, and I wondered if that was because they were playing on Maka's eyes. Eh, whatever. That wasn't really a big concern. Why shouldn't we match? Knowing Liz's logic, she'd probably say we had to complement each other because we were partners.

"Liz can stuff it," I said rudely. Maka snorted, as though trying to hold in a laugh, but ended up giggling anyway. She looked back at me, and her glowing green eyes turned silver in the starlight outside.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked. I blinked.

"Do I want…want to _dance_?" I repeated, startled. She nodded shyly. I smiled my shark toothed grin, and pulled her close. The music playing right now was perfect for a waltz, and that was something I knew how to do. I leaned forward.

"Only if you plan on clearing the floor like the last time you danced," I whispered in her ear. She laughed.

"Shouldn't be too hard,"

She was right. In no time we had cut through the crowd to the middle of the room, where our space grew bigger and bigger as people joined the main group to watch. Maka was a great dancer. I mean, I'd seen her dance before, but it was different when I was dancing with her. She was amazingly trusting, following each movement perfectly and without hesitation. She went with me no matter what I did, and soon we had people cheering us on like she and Harvar had last year.

Harvar.

Just thinking about that night set my teeth on edge. Him dancing with Maka, so close to each other that, if they'd tried to be any closer, they'd be behind each other. Him kissing Maka, right in front of me. Anger boiled in my stomach, hot and painful.

"Soul," Maka hissed in my ear. "Calm down."

I spun her out, and I flashed back to when Harvar did the same thing, but when he pulled her back in, he dipped her and kissed her on the freaking lips. I whipped her back to my side. With a little more force than was strictly necessary, I suppose, as Maka stumbled slightly, but recovered quickly.

"Wavelengths?" I growled the question, lifting her into the air. She spun and landed neatly on her feet about a yard away. I lunged and scooped her up, continuing the dance. We spun and dipped, but instead of having fun, suddenly all I could think of was when she and Harvar had done the same.

"That—" she whispered, and I spun her again. She continued when she was back against my chest. "And your grip's a little tight."

I swore and became aware of the fact that I was holding her hand and waist in a vice-like grip. I started to let go and step back, guilt sweeping over me, but she tightened her hold on me.

"Song's not over yet," she murmured, taking the lead.

"But I'm hurting you," I protested, just as quietly. She smiled.

"No, you're not now. You were just distracted. Now, would you please lead?" She asked, and stepped on my foot. "I'm not sure how to do this."

I winced, then grinned. "Yeah, I see that now."

Finally the song came to an end, and there was a riotous amount of applause and cheers and whistles. I caught a glimpse of Liz in the crowd. She looked positively ecstatic, but her face fell when I let Maka up and we walked away.

Why?

….

_**For those of you who wanted to see how the actual meeting between Maka and Soul went, or the months that they adjusted to each other, read my story Close Calls. Soul flashes back to those instants in there 1. Love you guys! **_


	6. A Powerful Thing

"Soul…" Maka sighed, nuzzling into my chest. I chuckled and tightened my hold on her. There was a thunderstorm outside, and Maka had crawled into bed with me, insisting that she couldn't sleep with the lightning and the thunder. I thought it hilarious that the girl who fought Kishin eggs on a regular basis, witches on a slightly less regular basis, and had destroyed the Kishin Asura was scared of weather, and I said as much. I winced. My head still ached from that Maka-Chop.

"Go to sleep, Maka," I whispered, curling around her protectively.

"Mm…yeah…" she murmured. Her warm, soft breath tickled my bare skin and sent goosebumps erupting along my neck and arms.

In no time she'd drifted off, leaving me to hold her in my arms and wish that she could think of this the way I did.

Over the course of three years, my feelings had moved past a silly crush. Way past. I had no idea what to call it, not until Tsubaki had caught me after school and suggested a walk. I obliged, curious what that was about.

"_Soul?" Tsubaki said in her quiet way, picking an apple from a tree in the park._

"_Yeah?"_

"_What do you think of Maka? Be honest."_

_I stiffened and looked over at her. She was looking at me with a small, knowing smile. Without a word she led me to a bench and sat down beside me, taking a dainty bite from her fresh fruit. I swallowed my pride, and looked at my feet as I spoke._

"_I—I don't really know. I know that, when she first came, I couldn't stop thinking about her, and seeing Harvar kiss her and dance with her at Kid's party really bugged me. Then, at her birthday party—the first one since she came here—I remember thinking that she was more than just kind of pretty, or hot. And all I wanted to do was dance with her."_

"_And now?" Tsubaki prompted. "Feelings like that don't just go away."_

_I shook my head._

"_No, they don't," I laughed grudgingly. "Now, I can't stop thinking about her at all. Every thought in my head runs back around to her. Something as stupid as picking a shirt to wear for the day turns into wondering what Maka's wearing. I'll catch myself staring at her when she's not looking. I lose myself when we're talking—she's the only thing that's real. When we fight together, I'm so determined to protect her and keep her safe, sometimes she gets mad at me."_

"_What do you see, when you look at her?"_

"_Well, at the beginning I saw a scrawny, tomboy-ish girl that was a total geek. But now…Now, she's…she's beautiful. I've noticed how, when she's in the sunlight, her hair goes from ashy blonde to gold, and how it has all these different natural highlights in it. Her eyes are the coolest shade of green—no, they're all the different shades combined. Emerald flecked with darker and lighter greens. When she's mad, or scared, they get all dark and wide, like forest green. When she's happy, they get so bright that there are flecks of gold. She's filled out her figure. But, when I look at her, I see more than just her appearance. I see my partner, my tougher-than-steel partner, Maka Albarn, daughter of a Death Scythe. She's strong, and she's proud, and stubborn sometimes, but that's one of the best things about her. She puts everyone before her, and goes out of her way to try and protect them. She's the embodiment of the best of man. I look at her, and I see what I want to be."_

_Tsubaki gave a quiet laugh, and I whipped around to glare at her._

"_What's so funny about that?"_

_She smiled and shook her head. "Nothing, Soul. I was laughing because Liz was wrong. You do _not_ have a crush on Maka."_

_I frowned. "Uhm…Tsubaki, do you know what a crush is?"_

_Tsubaki nodded patiently. "Yes, Soul, I do know what a crush is. And that's not what you have for Maka. It goes _way_ deeper than a crush for you."_

"_What?" I demanded._

"_You love her, Soul."_

I heaved a great sigh. Yeah, I loved my meister, my life-time partner. How tacky was that? But I couldn't help it, and I didn't want to. Not for the world would I change how I felt for Maka. Sometimes I had to wonder if Maka knew. I mean, she could read me like a book, even if she didn't use her Soul Perception. She should've at least sensed it when we were resonating. But, Tsubaki explained to me, love was the kind of emotion that could be easily overlooked. Even if she _did _sense it, Maka could have just attributed it to that brotherly feeling that Tsubaki said she always sensed from Blackstar.

"Maka, why can't you open your eyes? Just for once," I murmured, brushing her hair back from her face. "How can you be so smart, and so stupid, at the same time?"

I leaned down and brushed my lips ever so gently over her forehead. She shivered and huddled closer to me in her sleep. I smiled and tucked her small frame against my chest, and fell asleep with her heart beating next to mine

…

"Hey, Liz?" said Maka quietly.

"Mm?" I said distractedly. I was thinking through mine and Tsubaki's newest scheme to get Soul to confess. Maka and I were walking to the place where it would start right now.

"Soul's been acting…kind of weird lately. Any idea why?"

I barely bit back a chuckle. Poor Maka, so oblivious. Yeah, I had an idea. But I wouldn't be the one to let slip. Instead, I played cool and collected.

"Uh, Maka, hate to break it to you, but Soul _is_ weird. It's probably not an act."

Maka rolled her eyes.

"I mean weirder than normal."

"How so?" I said, casually as possible. We were almost there. Just one quick little side trip.

"Uhm…Liz, why are we going to your house? I thought you said we were meeting up with Tsubaki at the coffee shop?"

"Yeah, we are, but we need to stop by the manor first. We can't have you dressed in ratty jeans and a college t-shirt when we're trollin' for guys."

Maka groaned and attempted to take her arm out of mine. She didn't succeed.

"What the Hell, Liz? I thought I told you no more of this!"

I laughed.

"Sorry, doesn't ring a bell!"

"Liz!"

"C'mon Maka! It's a Saturday night and all you'd be doing is reading. Come spend it with your gal pals!" I whined, pushing her through the front door and up a flight of stairs, down a hall to the right, and into my room.

I loved my room. The lime green walls with green and purple bed clothes and pillows. I had a huge bathroom with a counter longer than a Hollywood catwalk, that I always had cosmetics carefully arranged on. I also had a walk-in closet that I liked to believe celebrities would kill for. This was where I dragged Maka, and stripped her down to her black lace Vicky Secret's underclothes. I'd like to think that her taste was improving, but those were a pair I'd gotten for her.

"Okay, so what do you think?" I said, rummaging through the racks of clothing.

"I think I want to go home and read…" She grumbled, but I ignored her.

"Aha! Perfect!" I pulled a forest green pencil skirt from a shelf, and a pitch black halter top from a hanger. The skirt had a wide black belt, and subtle, sheer lace ruffles. The top was made of a soft, supple, and very clingy material, with a low neckline that was bordered with delicate white embroidery. I tossed them to her. "Put 'em on!" I ordered, and proceeded to find myself something suitable for boy hunting.

I settled for by navy blue strapless top and my favorite skinny jeans.

"How come you get to wear pants?" she complained.

"Because they don't look near as good on you as that skirt does," I said seriously. And it was true. That skirt hugged her hips and butt in a most inviting way, and showed off plenty of her slender legs. The top wasn't bad either. It showed off her delicate arms and shoulders, and the v-neck dipped just low enough to show off a teasing amount of cleavage.

I knelt down and plucked a pair of ankle boots from one of my shoe racks. They were soft, supple, black, velvet-covered leather, with buckle straps and two-inch heels. They were adorable, and would look great with her outfit. She slipped them on without complaint and waited silently while I slipped on my own knee-high lace-up boots, the four-inch stilettos.

Little did she know that we weren't trolling at all. Of course, I was always on the lookout for a hot guy, so I dressed accordingly, but tonight, Maka was the star of the show.

I straightened up. "Ready to go?"

"Home…" I thought I heard her mutter, but again I ignored her and pulled her back out to the front with me.

The coffee shop was two blocks away, and we got there with plenty of time to spare. Tsubaki was sitting at one of the tables, sipping on what could only be a caramel macchiato. We hurried over to her and sat down.

"Miss anything exciting?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Tsubaki shook her head.

"Nothing much. They did say that they were going to take volunteers to perform something, though."

"Oh, Maka!" I feigned surprise. I'd already known this. "You should play your violin!"

She gave me a half-amused, half-annoyed look. "I don't have it with me, Liz. You should know."

I frowned, then snapped my fingers and pulled out my cell phone from my bra—really, where else could I keep it? The pockets may have well just been decoration, as tight as they were. I typed a quick message, and hit SEND.

In no time at all, I got a reply. FINE. BUT Y?

I replied. JUST BRING IT.

FINE.

"Soul's bringing it!" I practically sang. Everything according to plan.

Maka sighed, then her eyes widened almost imperceptibly and zeroed in on a spot over my shoulder. What on earth?

"H-hi," said Maka shyly.

"Hey," said a smooth voice, and another chair was added to our table, and an incredibly hot guy sat down, really close to Maka. Perfect. He was tall and deeply tanned, with a very nice body indeed. He had some drool-worthy muscles. His hair was shaggy, and honey blonde, his eyes a dark, chocolate brown. He had dazzling white teeth, and eyelashes any girl would kill for. He was also part of our plan. After all, jealousy was quite a powerful thing.

"Hope no one minds if I join?" he said, casting a quick glance around. Tsubaki and I shook our heads, and the guy turned his attention to Maka. We both looked appropriately envious that she was getting the attention. Didn't want to fall out of character. "So, what's your name? Don't recall seeing you around before."

"Maka. Maka Albarn."

"Hey, name's Jason. Call me Jace," he winked, and Maka blushed.

Damn, he was good. We'd found him a couple days ago while we were brainstorming. He'd been sitting in the corner with a black coffee and an MP3 player. We'd started up a conversation, and he said he was just visiting a friend over spring break. He'd be going back to Oceania when break was over. So, since he wouldn't be around very long, and wouldn't be in any danger of permanent damage from our little Maka's partner, we enlisted him in our scheme, and he was perfectly happy to help.

"You're a weapon?" she asked. I blinked. He hadn't mentioned _that_.

Jace nodded lazily. "Yeah, compound bow. You're a meister, I take it? Must be, if you can sense my wavelengths."

She nodded, flushing slightly pink again. He chuckled.

"You got a partner?" he drawled, leaning on the table. Nobody missed the fact that this put him closer to her. She blushed harder.

"Y-yeah. His name's—"

The tinkling of a bell had us all turning in our seats. The front door had just opened, and coming in was a tall guy with a shock of white hair. His ruby-colored eyes scanned the area. In his hand he held a black violin case. We could tell the exact moment he saw Maka, because his eyes brightened, and then the exact moment he saw Jace, because they became dark and shadowed. He walked over stiffly and dropped the case on the table.

"Okay, now why did you want Maka's violin, Liz?" he asked, eyes never leaving Jace. "You know you can't play worth shit."

"It's not for me, ass," I said easily. "Maka will be playing it for the coffee shop."

Jace raised one perfect eyebrow. "You play violin?"

Maka nodded, blushing furiously under Soul's hot gaze, and Jace's heavy one.

"Soul taught me," she gestured to her weapon, who nodded just enough to acknowledge her. Jace raised both eyebrows now.

"Soul?" Jace remembered the name from our briefings, I was sure. "Boyfriend?"

Soul jerked around; Maka made a choking sound; Tsubaki spat her drink back into the cup, coughing painfully. I just laughed.

"N-no!" Maka denied. "H-he's just m-my weapon partner!"

Jace looked appropriately abashed under Soul's furious glare.

"Oops, I'm sorry," he said, but he didn't sound sorry. Just amused. "Shouldn't jump to conclusions. I really need to work on that."

"Yeah," growled Soul, not even attempting to sound civil. "You should."

"Soul, why don't you sit down?" Tsubaki asked with a false giggle. She was getting nervous, I could tell. Trying to diffuse the tension. _Good luck with that, Tsubaki_, I thought, amused, as I watched Maka's partner take the seat on her other side, throwing evil looks over at Jace when he thought nobody was paying attention.

"Okay!" said a loud voice from behind the counter. We all turned. A very goth-looking dude with greasy, flat black hair and extensive piercings grinned at us. He was wearing more eyeliner than I could ever pull off, and his fingernails were painted black. Ew. Just plain ew.

"Time to get the fun started!" he said with s surprisingly happy voice for his appearance. "Would anybody like to perform something for us?"

Before I could get my hand in the air for my best friend, someone else took the stage. She was short and plump, and tried to sing the song _Apologize_ by Timbaland. I say try because, well, she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. When she finished, we all gave a polite golf clap and she scurried down the steps of the short stage. I shoved the violin at Maka and urged her up the stairs before she could argue. She heaved a great sigh, then set her case on the floor and took out her violin and her bow, making sure it was all set properly.

She got into position, holding her bow to the strings, ready to play. And play she did. It was like everything good in the world—love and hope and happiness—had suddenly been turned into music. The way she played, free, with complete abandonment, drew awe and, I'll admit, a bit of envy from me. Maka played effortlessly. She looked so calm and happy as she played her song. It was like this whenever she played. It was as though a spell had been cast over all those listening, making the world narrow until it was just her and the music.

I glanced over at Soul and barely hid a grin. He was staring at Maka, completely mesmerized. His expression was hungry. There were maybe three things more powerful than jealousy: music was one of them, I switched my attention to Jace, and was surprised to see that he was watching Maka in much the same way. Jace stared with rapt attention until Maka's final note quivered in the air, and then faded. She got more than a little golf clap. The entire room nearly shook with the applause she received.

Maka blushed and quickly stowed her instrument, nearly tripping down the stairs to get back to her seat. She sat down, flushing bright red under the gaze of the two guys on either side of her.

"I've never heard you play before," Soul accused, but there was no venom in his voice.

"Yes you have!" Maka answered. "I practice at home all the time!"

"Never like that," Soul mutters.

"That was quite impressive, Maka," Jace breathed. "I was enraptured."

She turned the color of a tomato and stuttered something incoherent. Jace just smiled, and his hand found hers on the table.

I could feel the electricity in the air, and I swear to Death I could hear Soul's teeth clench. His eyes sparked with anger. But, he was better than I thought. He scowled and looked away, crossing his arms to hide the fact that his hands were clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles were white.

That was when things went wrong. In the split second that Soul diverted his attention, somebody burst through the side door to the shop, screaming their head off. Then their head really did come off. With a sickening _thud_ it fell to the floor and bounced behind the counter. More people screamed as a grossly deformed person stepped into the shop. He was hunched over, with broad shoulders and a serious hump-back. His long, greasy brown hair stuck to his face, but I could still see the lop-sided, razor-toothed, completely insane grin as he swallowed the human's soul. He licked his lips with a long, pale tongue.

"More…souls…" he rasped, in an inhuman voice. Kishin egg.

Maka didn't hesitate. Neither did Jace. Jace transformed automatically, and Maka caught him. He changed into a dark, mahogany-colored compound bow. He looked heavy, but Maka held him as though he was a feather.

"No arrows?" I joked half-heartedly. I knew what the technique was.

"Nope. He'll focus on my wavelength. It'll become an arrow," said Maka tersely.

"_Damn girl!"_ exclaimed Jace in a tinny voice. _"You've got a serious wavelength!"_

I glanced around. Soul was staring at the pair of them, face white with anger, biting his lip so hard that it bled. Shit. Damnit. Mother_fucker._ This was not looking good. We'd gotten Soul past simple jealousy. He'd never tell Maka how he felt if he was as pissed as he looked.

Maka pulled back on the string of the bow; a shining blue arrow appeared almost instantly. She let it loose, and it flew straight through the Kishin egg's throat. She fired two more—one to the forehead, on to the center of the chest. The nasty creature let out a gargled scream and dissipated, leaving only the slightly slimy red orb that was its tarnished soul. Jace changed back, and I bit back a laugh. Maka's hands were resting one on his lower back, one on a place it should never be. She whipped her hands away, blushing furiously, but Jace only laughed and stooped to grab the soul. He licked his lips, and swallowed it whole.

Soul finally regained his ability to move, and grabbed Maka's elbow, towing her out the door.

"C'mon Maka. We're leaving," he growled.

I ran a hand through my hair. Damn. He'd been pushed too far.

"That could've gone better," was all Jace said. Tsubaki sighed behind me.

"Oh well. If the Kishin egg hadn't shown up, it would have worked. Thanks for your help, Jason."

He gave us both a wink, then swept a long bow. "No worries. That was quite fun."

And he turned and left without further conversation.

"Damnit!" I groaned. "We were so goddamn _close_! To Hell with all those stupid Kishin souls!"

Tsubaki sighed again, and I turned to look at her. "We'd better get going. No use hanging around now."

"Yeah, no guy's gonna pick me up after this fiasco," I said wearily, and followed Tsubaki out the door. So help me, I _would_ get those two together, damnit, even if it was the last thing I did…

….

Fuck my life. I couldn't explain to Maka just why I was so damn pissed; I wasn't sure I _knew_. Okay, yeah, I knew why. Damn guy was all over her, holding her hand and staring at her as though she was the most beautiful thing in the world. Not that she wasn't, but I wasn't okay with other guys looking at her like that. Then that Kishin egg came in, and Maka used that guy, _that guy,_ and not me, as a weapon. I didn't know what to think. How they matched soul wavelengths, how they seemed so into each other, even though I was _sure_ they'd never met. And so I repeat: fuck my life!

Maka jerked her arm out of my grasp and I spun around. We were in front of our apartment complex, the glaring orange streetlamps casting their eerie glow down the road to either side.

"What the Hell was that, Soul?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"What?" I responded, voice more harsh than I'd meant. Damn, losing control was so not cool. I tried to get a handle on my emotions.

"Why'd you drag me out of the coffee shop after I killed the Kishin soul?" she elaborated slowly, as though I was simple-minded.

"Oh, you mean the one you and _Jace_," I sneered his named, "took out?"

She blinked at my tone.

"No, the other one, moron."

Well, somebody was improving their sarcasm abilities.

"Why are you acting so damn pissed when all I did was use a weapon that wasn't completely oblivious?" she continued. "You weren't paying any attention, and he was closer and easier than Tsubaki or Liz!"

"Yeah, well, maybe that was my problem!" I sneered. "Maybe he was too close!"

She frowned. "What in Death's name does that have to do with anything?"

"He was all but sitting in your lap, Maka!" I snapped. "He was acting like a little lovesick kitten, and you weren't much better! It was pathetic!"

Maka flinched, and I opened my mouth to take back those harsh words, but she spoke before I could get past her name.

"Why the fuck do you care, Soul Eater?" she demanded. "Why in the name of Lord Death's ridiculous mask do you care that I might like some guy, and he might like me? Who the Hell do you think you are, my _father_? You don't have jurisdiction over me, idiot. I can do what I want; I don't need your _approval_."

I scowled.

"Don't compare me to that lunatic old man of yours."

She glared at me, green eyes glacial. "You're right. You two are nothing alike. At least he cares how I feel. He gives a shit if I'm happy. You seem to try your hardest to piss me off."

She turned on her heel, and stormed up the stairs to our apartment. I stood, rooted to the spot, watching as she jammed her key into the lock and shoved the door open; when she was inside, it slammed close with enough force to shake the whole building.

Did she really think I didn't care? That hurt. If I didn't care, would I have acted the way I did when a guy showed such obvious interest in her? No, the way she saw it, I was just being an ass to prove I could. It looked to her like I just wouldn't allow her to get together with another guy. I had to admit, I was being stupid then. I mean, how many girls did I go out with, in the hopes that they could just distract me from Maka? And I wouldn't let her get near a guy simply because she _liked_ him? What kind of an ass was I?

With a sigh that was more like a growl, I climbed the metal stairs and used my own key to unlock the door—she'd locked it again when she was inside—and walked slowly to my room. I paused briefly outside Maka's door, but all I heard were furious mutters too quiet to distinguish. I shook my head wearily and traipsed to my own bedroom, collapsing onto my bed still clothed.

I rolled over, curling into a ball, and drifted off to sleep, with Maka's music playing softly in my mind.

…..

"What is this about, Pati?" I said tiredly, rolling over on my bed. My little sister was bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Big sis, Professor Stein said we're taking this Super Final Written Exam thingy today!" she shouted excitedly. "It sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

I groaned. "No, Pati, no it does not sound like fun."

Still, as _not_-fun as it sounded, it was required, so I hauled myself out of bed and trudged through my morning routine.

….

The Exam was…interesting. When we first came in, the first thing _I_ saw was a barely conscious and very beat-up looking Blackstar pinned to the blackboard. He'd undoubtedly tried to sneak into Stein's lab to get a look at the answers.

Almost immediately after Sid started the timer, Soul got busted for cheating. He'd covered his _whole body_ with cheat sheets, and he'd gotten strip-searched and sent back to his seat in his boxers. A lot of girls' eyes followed him, but I noticed, with some disappointment, that Maka wasn't among them. I couldn't contain my smirk then—it'd be really hard for Soul to hide his reactions to Maka now. Huh, maybe his member would confess for him. The thought made me throw up a painful cough to disguise my laughter.

Ox finished first. All I could think, with the way he was acting, was _Smug bastard_. Pati had long-since given up on the test and was drawing on it with a yellow crayon. Soul was still trying to cheat, but Maka caught him looking at her paper and smacked him down with a Japanese-English dictionary. He looked over at Kid's paper, but of course he wouldn't get anywhere copying Kid. He was still writing his name. Then finally, after trying to erase the K in his name, the paper ripped, Kid cried out in agony, coughed up blood, and passed out in the aisle behind them. Soul told Sid, but Sid just said to leave him.

Then the test was over, I'd only answered a few questions—incorrectly, probably—Maka finished just in time, and Soul slumped in his chair.

I found Maka afterwards looking at the posted test scores. "So, how'd you do Maka?"

She smiled happily. "I beat Ox. I got the top score."

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed, hugging her. She laughed and patted my back until I pulled away.

"How did _you_ do, Liz?" she asked curiously. I made a face.

"Don't even ask," I groaned. She smiled again and patted my shoulder.

"Studying helps, you know," she winked.

"Yeah, but who has the patience for it?" I sighed, stretching. "Now, I expect you will join us on the basketball court after school today. _After_ you beat Soul senseless for trying to cheat, of course. I wouldn't want to deprive you of that."

She laughed, then sighed. "Yeah, I'll be there. But I don't think I'll need to Maka-Chop him at all. He's already pretty down about screwing up like that. That's really not something I need to bug him about."

"Damn right," Soul muttered, appearing at her shoulder. "So we're playing basketball today?"

I nodded, and he smirked. "Great. Something at least I won't fail."

Maka looked up to the ceiling, as if praying for patience. "Soul, _you_ won't be playing basketball. _You _will be studying. Our overall grades are averaged between the two of us. If you get me any less than an A-, you will know the _true_ meaning of pain."

"Aw, come on, Maka!" Soul whined. "You can give me _one _night, at least! I'll study every single damn day with you, _except_ basketball days!"

"Promise?"

Soul blinked, as though realizing what he'd said, but then growled a sigh.

"Yeah, fine."

Maka grinned, then caught us both by the elbows and hauled us away from the building to the park.

…..

"I finally won?" Maka said in disbelief.

Me and Blackstar had been playing with Maka against Tsubaki, Pati, and Kid. Liz was sitting on a bench by the court, painting her nails blood red. It had been a close game, and one of the ones where we added a punishment for the captain. Maka had been desperate to not lose, because we tricked her into being the team captain—she would've had to spend a whole day with her father. I'd tried really hard to, because it was important for her, and because I didn't want to hear her constant complaining after the "day-with-daddy". Hell, I sure wouldn't want to spend a day with that pervert. But, as it was, nobody had to spend any time with Death Scythe. Instead, all of the paintings in Kid's house were to be tilted exactly one-centimeter off-balance, and they had to stay like that for a whole day.

Kid was sobbing on the ground, clutching Blackstar's legs and begging him to have mercy and not to this. The symmetry of his paintings was perfect, exact.

"Well, Maka, looks like you lucked out," I said, hands behind my head. "Ready to go home?"

She grinned—my heart stuttered—and nodded, and together we walked back to the apartment.

_We may not be romantically involved_, I thought idly, _but this in itself is enough. She's my best friend, whatever else she's not. I could live with this_.

Don't get me wrong; feelings still have yet to fade. But I was getting better at controlling them. I still was _not_ happy whenever someone asked her out, but I didn't attempt to tear their throats out anymore. It helped that Maka always said _no_.

"Hey Soul?" asked Maka quietly.

"Uh?"

"Why'd you cheat? I would've helped you study."

I snorted. "Because studying isn't cool at all."

She sighed. "There are different studying methods for different people. I just read and take notes. Blackstar, when he _does_ study, has Tsubaki quiz him, and when he messes up, he does a hundred push-ups or sit-ups or whatever. We could find a way to help you."

I frowned and looked over at her. Her hands were shoved into her pockets—guess I was rubbing off on her after all—and her face was fixed on the ground as we walked.

"Why the sudden interest in my studying methods?"

"Or lack thereof," she muttered. Then she cleared her throat and spoke up. "I just wish you'd have let me help you instead of looking like a total idiot in front of the whole class."

"Hey!" I said indignantly. "The girls didn't think I looked like an idiot—they stared at me all the way to my seat."

Maka rolled her eyes. "That's because most of the girls in our class don't _know _you like I do, and are completely superficial."

I pretended to wince. "Ouch, that hurt, Maka. Only the superficial girls think I'm hot?"

Again, she rolled her eyes.

"No, I'll acknowledge that you're good-looking, but I have the good sense to care about more than looks alone."

Huh. Not hot, but _good-looking_. Coming from Maka? I'd take it.

"Whatever," I shrugged and led her up the stairs to our landing.

…

_Soul…_ I heard her thoughts before our resonance was broken, and she collapsed on the ground.

"_Fuck!"_ I shouted, and turned back from a scythe. Maka was unconscious. I could already tell.

And that Kishin egg was barreling down on her. She had said that this one was really close to turning. That would explain why its weapons were now a part of it—long thin blades protruded from its knees and elbows, and its teeth were jagged and crooked, the canines long fangs. It had two beady eyes, the color of dried blood.

"Hey ugly!" I screamed, waving my hands in the air. It looked up and altered course, charging straight for me now. "That's right ugly! Come and get me!"

It let out a warbling cackle that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I looked past it—Maka was stirring feebly. I flung myself out of the way just as the thing would've collided with me. Instead, it collided with the wall _behind_ me. A cloud of dust and debris billowed from the point of contact.

"Soul!" Maka shouted. I looked around. She was crouched on the ground now, staring at me in disbelief. "What the Hell are you doing?"

"Keeping you from getting killed while you were unconscious!" I responded as the creature growled drowsily. "You're welcome!"

"Get back over here now!" she commanded, rising to her feet. I swept her a bow, and obligingly transformed, flying right to her outstretched hand. She gave me a couple of good spins that'd make me sick if I had a stomach in this form.

"Kishin egg Vlad the Impaler!" Maka cried as the thing turned around. "Your soul is mine!"

'Vlad the Impaler' shrieked a snarl at us and charged again. Maka leaped high into the air.

"Let's go, Soul Resonance!" we shouted. Immediately I grasped her wavelength and focused on amplifying it. We would get it right this time. I knew we would.

"Witch Hunter!" Maka shouted, and brought my new glowing blade arching down toward the Kishin egg. I cut clean through the thing's body, and it faded to its delicious-looking red soul. I transformed back from the scythe and devoured the soul in one swallow. Maka made a face, same as always, and we left for the Academy.

"We'll have to mark that job as finished," she commented.

"Duh, Maka," I chuckled. "We've done this enough times to know that much."

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Whatever, Soul. I was just talking to myself."

"First sign of madness," I muttered. She scowled.

"Madness isn't something to joke about, Soul. That's the reason there are so many Kishin eggs!"

"I know that," I snapped. "I was just joking. You need to loosen up some, Maka."

Her scowl deepened, but she said nothing.

"Hey," I said, with a lighter tone. "We killed another Kishin. Don't be mad. It's the weekend."

She looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"You have really weird reasons for me not to be mad. 'It's the weekend'?"

I snorted. "Well, some people actually _enjoy_ having a couple of school-free days."

"Whatever," she mumbled.

I looked over at her. Her eyes were on the ground, the way they had been a lot lately. She was wringing her hands behind her back.

"Hey, Maka, I was joking back there. Seriously, though, don't be mad," I said softly. "You're no fun when you're mad."

She gave me a half-hearted smile. "You don't think I'm too uptight?"

"Nah," I lied. "'Course not."

Out of nowhere, a book had slammed into my forehead, taking me down to the ground. I realized when I fell on a stair, that we'd reached the front gate of the school

"Ouch, damnit!" I spat out a tooth. "What was that for?"

"For lying to your meister," she said smoothly, dislodging the book from my skull and hauling me to my feet. Her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"How'd you know I was lying?" I wondered.

"I can read you like a book, Soul," she answered. "Actually, I guessed. But you just confirmed it, so I don't feel too bad."

I stared at her incredulously. "You Maka-Chopped me because of a _guess_?"

"A _correct_ guess," she amended.

"That's crude," I grumbled. She laughed and pulled me up the stairs with her.

"And somehow, I doubt you've learned your lesson yet," she responded. She finally let go to sprint up the last few stairs, and I stared after her. She really was something. That much was obvious.


	7. Revelations?

"Soul, have you seen Maka?" asked Tsubaki. I looked around; the tall Dark Arm was standing on the side of the court, looking worried.

"Hey, time out!" I shouted at Blackstar, then picked up the ball, tucking it under my arm, and approached Tsubaki. "Nah, I thought she was going to your place?"

Tsubaki shrugged. "She was there for a while, and when Liz and Pati showed up, we were all talking for a little while. Then Maka started to get quiet, and she said that she needed some alone time, and she left."

"What were you guys talking about?" I asked. Tsubaki looked uncomfortable.

"I don't think…It was private stuff," she said lamely.

"Well, then I don't need to hear it," I said, dramatically covering my ears. "I don't want to hear about all of your _girl issues_."

Tsubaki glared. "This is serious, Soul. Maka's gone missing. I don't need your sarcasm right now."

I held up my hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, sorry. Didn't realize you were so grouchy today, jeez."

"I'm _not_ grouchy!" she huffed indignantly.

"Yeah, Tsubaki's always like this!" Blackstar called. "Shouldn't you be used to it by now?"

Tsubaki scowled but decided not to grace her meister with an answer. Instead, she turned back to me, her indigo eyes sparking with renewed worry."

"I thought she'd have gone back to your apartment, so I wasn't too worried about her. I left a little later to check, but no one was there."

I frowned. "Did you try the bookstore?"

"Liz did, and Pati's looking in the park. We can't find her anywhere, Soul," she said fretfully.

"What's up Tsubaki?" Blackstar said, bouncing up to try and snatch the ball away from me. I socked him in the face.

"You idiot, I called time out," I snapped, then turned back to Tsubaki. "I'll go check the school. I have an idea of where she might be."

"Okay," she said.

I tossed the ball to Blackstar; it hit him in the face as he was sitting up. I permitted myself a short laugh, then I started heading for the Academy.

….

I was right. She was on the roof. I'd come out the door onto the landing to find her sitting on the railing, her legs dangling out over the city. With an evil smirk to match my evil thoughts, I crept up quietly behind her. When I was less than a yard away, I let out a loud yell and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back.

"Saved your life!" I laughed.

Maka shrieked and jerked out of my arms. She took one look at me, and a huge hardcover Japanese copy of _War and Peace_ appeared in her hand. I scrambled backwards, running into the fountain that stood in the middle of the balcony. That throbbed, but it'd be nothing compared to the pain of _that_ thing in her hand.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" I shouted, cowering with my arms over my head. "I won't do it again! I didn't mean to scare you! Have mercy!"

Nothing came flying at my face, and I slowly lowered my arms. I got one look at her face before the book met my nose with a loud _crack!_ and I felt blood ooze from both nostrils. It knocked me backward into the fountain, and I heard a loud _crack!_ It wasn't my head. When I looked at the fountain, I saw past the stars that there was now a slight fissure in the sturdy structure. Aw, come on, was my head really _that_ thick? Damn, that was kind of gratifying, actually. My skull would have to be thick to survive Maka's continuous beatings.

"Ow!" I snarled. "Fuck! Shit! Goddamn, woman!"

Without a word she picked herself up and turned back to the city. I cautiously rose to my feet too, pulling the book from the smoking crater it had no doubt left in my head. Nice and slowly, very aware of the newfound agony in my head, I moved to stand beside her.

"What brought you up here?" I asked when I'd recovered my wits enough to speak.

"Could ask you the same thing."

I snickered, but it was short-lived. "I asked you first. You. The others were really worried when they couldn't find you in the bookstore, the apartment, or the park, so I figured you'd be up here. So, why _are_ you up here?"

She was biting her lip.

"What were the girls talking about that upset you?" I prompted when she didn't answer. Still she didn't respond, and I lost my patience. I put my hands on her shoulders and gave her a fierce shake. "Hey, Maka, I asked you a question!" I snapped. "You've got everyone panicked because you disappeared! Tsubaki and the girls are freaked that something's happened to you because they said something that bothered you and you left them hanging. You may not want to talk to them about it, but you _will_ talk to me. I'm your weapon, your _partner_. You can talk to me if something's wrong, you know."

Slowly she met my gaze. Her eyes, usually so bright and lively, were dark.

"What's eating you?" I said, in a much softer tone. She took a shaky breath.

"They were talking about family."

"So?" I asked, not sure in the least why that would've upset her, unless they'd asked her for details of her father's many sordid adventures. Maka threw me a look like she knew what I had been thinking, and I mimed zipping my mouth shut and throwing away the key.

"Tsubaki talked about how her parents loved each other, and her and her older brother. She was the only one out of them to be a Dark Arm, and they pampered her, but neglected her brother, which she always tried to accommodate for, and her brother ended up hating her because he thought she pitied him. Then he killed their parents, and turned into the Enchanted Sword thing, that was like a living demon. He disappeared from her life after that.

"Liz and Pati talked about how they'd never known their parents, and how they'd been tossed from foster home to foster home, orphanage to orphanage, until the finally ran away and just lived on the streets. How scum used to torment them every day because their parents didn't want them, and so they made the best of what they had, acting like they ruled Brooklyne and that nothing could bring them down. But no one thought to ask what their live were _really_ like."

"Why did that bother you?" I asked, confused. "I mean, I know that it's all pretty messed-up, but it's not like it's your fault or anything."

"No, it's not my fault, but it makes me feel really bad about myself. Here I am, wallowing in self-pity because my father cheated on my mother and they got a divorce. At least I know they both love me, if not each other. At least they're alive. At least they both _want _me. I've been going around feeling so sorry for myself, and then I hear stories like theirs and I realize that I'm not the only one who didn't have the best childhood. People have had it way worse than me, and I've been whining about how unfair my life is and how stupid my family is. It just makes me feel so stupid and so damn tactless." She sniffed and turned her face away, but I saw something glisten for just a moment on her cheek. A tear.

I blinked. Oh, crap, not cool! My partner, a _girl_, was crying! Crap, what did I do? I'm not good with tears. Never have been. Cool guys should never have to deal with crying chicks! But then, cool guys should know how, regardless if they ever actually have to or not.

"Hey," I said with an uneasy grin. "All teenagers get that way. You know, the whole _"Nobody understands what I've been through!"_ bull shit. You're not the only one. We've _all_ had family issues. Tsubaki, Liz and Pati, Kid, Blackstar, me, you. We've all felt like we were the ones with the short end of the stick. We all thought that it couldn't get any worse than what we've been through. But we've all been proven wrong. Kid, then Liz and Pati, then me and Tsubaki and Blackstar. Now you."

She looked up at me. "You?"

Uh-oh. Crap, that opened up some uncomfortable doors. Swallowing hard, I nodded, and braced myself for the questions. My stomach clenched, along with my jaw. Ready to take the humiliation.

Maka frowned. "Soul, calm down."

I couldn't hold back a smirk. She could read me like all those books she always had her nose in.

"You and that Soul Perception," I said in mock irritation. She blinked.

"I wasn't using my Soul Perception. You press your lips into a line when you're upset, and the corners of your eyes get all tight. Oh, and your forehead creases. It gets this little 'v' thing between your eyebrows."

I stared at her. "You can tell if I'm on edge just by looking at my _face_?" She nodded, blushing. I shook my head, and broke out in loud laughter.

"You're pretty cool, you know that?" I chuckled, wiping a tear from my eye. She gave me a wan smile, and I realized that she hadn't asked for my family story. "You're not going to ask what my family issues were?"

She shook her head, laughing a little herself now, although it was half-hearted at the very best.

"If you wanted me to know, you'd tell me. I'm not asking for personal information like that. That's just weird."

I looked at her for a long moment. She shivered.

"Are you cold?" I asked at once, starting to shrug out of my jacket. She shook her head.

"Not really. I'm fine." But she shivered again under my penetrating stare. I took her tiny hand in mine—my fingers completely swallowed hers—and pulled her to me. She gave a small squeak of surprise, but didn't resist. She pressed her back to my chest, and I wrapped my jacket around both of us.

For a minute, we just stood there, uninterrupted, staring out over Death City and out into the desert beyond. With Maka pressed tightly to my chest, my arms around her, I felt…happy. Happy, really, truly happy. It was as though she had a part of me I hadn't realized was missing until she put it back. She fit perfectly against my chest, her head resting back against my collarbone. _She really is tiny_, I realized as I enveloped myself around her in an attempt to block out the chill. I rested my chin on the top of her head, nesting in her soft, ash blonde hair as, just for a moment, I could be a hundred percent open and free. I let down all the shields that were always between me and other people, the ones that kept me from caring, from feeling. The ones that hid an insecure kid who had been cast out from his own family, completely estranged from anybody and everybody because he had a taste for a different kind of music. For just a few moments, I allowed myself to be completely, totally vulnerable. Wrapped together like this, it was nice, easy, to believe that Maka shared my feelings, that she felt the same way. Nice and easy to pretend that she could ever love someone like me.

Briefly I had to wonder why it was me that had found her. Not just today, but at all. Why had it been _me_ that had insisted we interfere with her and Hiro? Why had it been _me_ that had tried so hard to see past what lay beneath the surface? _Why had it been me _that had fallen? Why had I been the one to get partnered with her?

Well, maybe _how_ was a better word. How was it that I, the most unlucky guy in the world, got paired up with one of the coolest, smartest, most amazing person that could possibly exist? How had I received such a stroke of luck? I had a loyal, trusting partner that trusted me with her life as I trusted her with mine, a meister that told me all her secrets in total confidence. She trusted me, she believed in me, she was loyal to me, and, most amazing of all, she was a _friend_ to me. Not in the same way as Tsubaki, who I could talk to about everything, but who was too calm and patient all the time. Not in the same way as Liz, who was a bit too superficial, however kind-hearted. Not in the same way as Kid, who was great for the occasional profound talk, but was more often than not having an OCD attack. Not in the same way as Pati, who was funny sometimes, but too spacy. Not even in the same way as Blackstar, who I'd always been able to talk to, but almost never get a serious answer from. I could talk to Maka about anything, get an honest answer no matter how brutal. She was smart, to the point, and had a focus so intense it was a wonder she didn't burn holes into whatever she was looking at. She was observant, too, extremely so.

Which made me wonder why I heard the nearly non-existent creak as the door to the stairs swung open, but Maka didn't. I looked over my shoulder. Liz, Pati, and Kid were all peering out. When they saw me with Maka, they all grinned, Liz fist-pumped the air, and Pati fell into a fit of silent giggles so intense that she fell backwards, back down the stairs. Immediately Liz and Kid ran down after her, not out of worry, but out of fear she'd laugh so loud that someone would find out they were on campus after sundown on a weekend. Technically it wasn't trespassing, but nobody ever fancied seeing Professor Stein without at least four others around, and they knew that Maka and I were not going to be helping them out if he wanted some more information on what the inside of a weapon's body looked like compared with that of a meister's.

Maka didn't hear the commotion, or she didn't care, because she stayed right where she was, with my arms wrapped around her in an effort to keep her warm, and didn't even flinch when the door slammed shut.

…

"There a particular reason why you didn't check the school?" I asked in a half-interested voice the next day, tilting back in my chair.

"'Cause we know Maka's a nerd and all, but we'd never expect her to go to the Academy on a _Sunday_." Said Blackstar.

"Then how'd you guys find us so quick after you told me?"

"We followed you," Liz said, not the least bit embarrassed. "We knew you'd have an idea, so when you took off straight away, Tsubaki rounded us up and we headed to the school after you."

"Nosy bunch of pricks," I muttered.

"What was that?" said Liz with false innocence. There was that dangerous glint in her eyes that said she'd heard me perfectly clear.

"Nothing," I grumbled.

"Didn't think so," Her voice was smug.

"Hey guys!" Maka said brightly, running in the door just as the bell rang.

"Ooh, cutting it a little close, aren't we today Maka?" Blackstar teased. "Stein'd love for you to be late just once. Then you'd get to spend an afternoon detention with him. Wonder what he'd have you do?"

"Clean desks, maybe?" I offered, then shook my head. "Nah, he'd probably strap you down and dissect you."

Maka shuddered.

"Shut up, guys. I was just with Stein in the library."

Six pairs of eyes stared at her.

"Quality time with Stein?" Liz managed. Maka shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"No, I was trying to do some research, but the books I needed were off-limits without teacher permission."

"You're so lame, Maka!" I groaned. "Studying in the morning with Stein before class? What' s wrong with you?"

"I was looking up ways to improve our resonance rate. Nothing in the lower level books is new," she answered haughtily. "If you don't care about that, I won't do it anymore, Soul. Would that make you feel better?"

"N-no! I didn't say that!" I stammered. Ways to improve resonance? I was down with that. "You didn't say what you were researching—just that you were!"

"Okay, class, take your seats," called Stein, rolling in on his stupid spinny-chair thing. Immediately people seemed to appear in their seats. Stein was not a man to piss off.

Maka took her seat next to me and pushed my chair onto all four legs. I threw her a look but said nothing. She was already opening her book to the assigned page. I sighed and did the same, planning to doze off as soon as I could pull it off. A sharp, piercing glance my direction and I knew that Maka was guessing my thoughts. Hell, sometimes I wondered if she could actually _read_ my mind. The thought was frightening.

Well, according to her scowl, staying awake was in my best interest. I didn't need this textbook slamming into my skull—it was hardcover, and really, really big.

….

"You guys want to go clubbing?" asked Liz happily Friday after school.

"No, I need to study," answered Maka at once.

"No you don't, you know the whole textbook by heart," I replied. "Like how page fifty-seven talks about things that can damage resonance."

"No," she protested at once. "Page fifty-seven talks about how a meister-weapon bond is formed."

I nodded. "Thank you for proving me right. You know the thing by heart."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, so maybe I don't strictly _need_ to study. Where would we be going _if _I agreed to tag along?"

Liz grinned. "Knew you'd pick right. We'd be going to that awesome new place in town, down by Chupacabra's. And _you_ are wearing that sexy red and black cocktail dress I bought you _ages_ ago."

Maka grimaced at the same time that I smirked. I liked that one, actually. It was black silk, strapless, with a corset-style bodice that had entirely useless laces on the front for decoration. It fell about half-way down her thighs, and the skirt was also riffled black silk, with black and red transparent material sneaking down another three inches from beneath the silk. She looked hot in it.

"Do I have to Liz?" she whined. "I mean, the thing is _strapless_! It refuses to stay up!"

Liz gave her a frosty look.

"Yes, you will wear it, and you will like it. It does not fall down that bad, now that you've filled your chest out some."

Maka turned bright red and looked away, muttering something about annoying pistols.

I laughed and pulled her ahead with me. "You know she means well," I chastised.

With a grimace, she replied: "Yeah, but c'mon! That thing barely leaves anything to the imagination!"

"It's longer than most of those skirts you wear," I offer. Yeah, I'd noticed that.

"Well, yeah, but—"

"'But' nothing. You're going to wear it, or she'll kill you. Or worse."

Another grimace.

"Fine. But you're wearing that suit,"

I groaned in mock horror. "Oh, no, and no one's _ever_ seen me in _that_ thing, before." I winked at her. Maka huffed and stomped ahead. I laughed and shook my head. She was too much fun to mess with.

….

"Come on, Maka!" I called, banging on the bathroom door again.

"Just a sec!" she answered.

"You said that five minutes ago!"

"Well, excuse me for not being as skilled with Liz with this kind of crap!"

I sighed and trumped to the living room, flopping down onto the couch.

Two minutes later, the door opened, and the click of heels preceded my meister. I glanced up, and then fell back, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood from my nose before she noticed. She noticed, but instead of a book, she bent down—showing major cleavage, too, damnit! Not helping!—took off one of her shoes, and flung it at my face. I caught it just before the heel would've imbedded itself in my eye. The shoe was black, with straps that wrapped tightly around her ankle, and were embedded with false red stones. The heel was at the very most two inches, but it tapered at the end.

"Jesus, Maka! You could've taken my eye out!" I snapped, chucking the shoe back at her.

Maka caught it deftly with one hand and slid it back on.

"That's what you get for having a mind that's always stuck in the gutter," she replied coolly, but I noticed that she was tugging at the skirt of her dress as though expecting it to grow longer.

It looked awesome on her. It riffled skirt accented her hips, the corset-bodice her waist and her chest. I sniffed furiously, rubbing my nose.

"You look fine, Maka," was all I said. She looked way better than just _fine_, but it'd be uncool for me to say sexy or hot or damn beautiful. That'd be awkward. She'd replicated that smoky-eye look that Liz always used, but this time with shades of charcoal instead of green. Her lashes were thick and full, and her lips were cherry-red.

She smiled wordlessly and I climbed to my feet, leading her out the door just as Kid pulled his car up outside the building. Liz looked up, saw us, and leaned over Kid to honk the horn.

"Woo-hoo!" she shouted. "Who's that sexy lady! You want a ride?"

Maka laughed in spite of herself and I chuckled. I leaned down and whispered softly in her ear.

"Sooner we go, sooner we can leave,"

"I know. I'd be running if I weren't in heels."

"Maybe that should be part of your training," I laughed, and we climbed into the backseat, crowding in with Blackstar and Tsubaki. Maka, much to her chagrin, had to sit in my lap, because there just wasn't room for her to squeeze in between me and Blackstar. I glanced up at the front in time to see Liz's sly grin, and I wondered if she'd planned this. No, she couldn't have. She wasn't _that_ ruthless. Was she?

Ah, Hell. This would be an interesting night.

…

"Why _not_?" Liz whined, still trying to push Maka and me onto the floor. "It's supposed to be great for matching soul wavelengths!"

"You're making that up," I huffed. "Since when would you know that, miss paint-my-nails-in-class?"

"Actually, Soul, dancing _does_ improve Soul Resonance," Maka muttered before realizing that she'd sealed our fate.

"See? Even top student Maka agrees! Now _go_!" Liz gave us one final shove and we stumbled amidst the crowd of people swaying.

I gave a huge sigh, then pulled Maka to me. This wasn't the music that I'd ever seen Maka dance to, but it was the most simple, boring dance known to man. No way would she mess it up. The song was really slow, something I'd never listen to.

_I hung up the phone tonight  
>Something happened for the first time<br>Deep inside, was a rush, what a rush  
>'Cause the possibility<br>That you would ever feel the same way  
>About me, just too much, just too much<em>

I leaned down. "Sooner we start, the sooner it ends," I smirked and guided her hands to my shoulders. I wouldn't say I didn't _want_ to hold her, slow dance with her, but being _forced_ to do anything made me dig my heels in. Plus, I'd rather do this kind of thing on my own terms, without six people staring at us, one boring hateful holes into the back of my head.

"I think…" Maka giggled as my hands found her waist, and we started to sway. "That you should be really glad looks can't kill."

"Oh?" I feigned innocence. "Why's that?"

"Because then Harvar would've killed you several times over already," she answered.

_Why do I keep running from the truth?  
>All I ever think about is you<br>You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized  
>And I just got to know<em>

_Do you ever think, when you're all alone  
>All that we can be, where this thing can go?<br>Am I crazy or falling in love?_  
>Is it really just another crush?<p>

I snorted and did some creative turning that stayed with the beat of the music, but that put us out of sight of the peanut gallery.

"I couldn't care less about Harvar," I replied. Not true, of course. I still wanted to be his friend—he was cool, and he could be funny when he talked—but the fact that he was still after _my_ meister didn't go over well with me. Call me protective. Or possessive, whichever suits your fancy. Either way, Harvar wasn't getting anywhere with Maka.

"I still can't believe I've known you guys for only three years," Maka said quietly. I looked down into her eyes and was startled to find that they were shining.

"Whoa, Maka, no tears," I said hastily. Damnit, not this again! I was the only one that ever saw her tears, and I was probably the least equipped to handle them. Well, aside from Blackstar, maybe.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, no tears." Then she wrapped her arms all the way around my shoulders and nuzzled her face in the crook of my neck. I stiffened and the breath hissed through my teeth in an exhalation of shock. But, when she tried to pull away, worried that she'd made me uncomfortable or whatever, my arms snaked around her waist, preventing escape. I leaned my head against hers.

"Yeah," I chuckled. "It's been a good three years, too, hasn't it?"

Shivers ran through me when I felt her lips turn up against my skin. "Not bad. Not bad at all, Soul."

That song had been playing through the brief but surprisingly deep moment.

_Why do I keep running from the truth?  
>All I ever think about is you<br>You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized  
>And I just got to know<em>

_Do you ever think, when you're all alone  
>All that we could be, where this thing could go?<br>Am I crazy or falling in love?  
>Is it really just another crush?<br>Do you catch your breath when I look at you?  
>Are you holding back, like the way I do?<br>'Cause I've tried and tried to walk away  
>But I know this crush ain't going away-ay-ay<br>This crush ain't going away-ay-ay_

Those lyrics struck home. The way I felt about Maka wasn't ever going away. My feelings would never fade—I knew that now. I also knew that this was way more than some crush. Tsubaki had helped me realize that, but it took the song to make me fully accept it, to come to terms with it.

It might make me the most uncool person in the world. Make me look weird or stupid or creepy. A weapon falling for their meister? Who'd ever heard of something as cliché as that since Spirit and Kami? Actually, I think that those two were solely responsible for the rule that discouraged relationships between partners. It could take the partners' Soul Resonance to extreme heights, making them capable of power they couldn't have achieved otherwise. It also had the potential to destroy their resonance rate if—make that _when_—something went amiss in the routine. Sometimes, it didn't just destroy the partnership, but the individuals as well. There was one account of something like that happening a long time ago. It was in one of our history books.

Vlad Tepes, famous not for his exceptional mastery of his weapon form, but for that ridiculous legend that named him Count Dracula, had been married to his meister. As he became more and more independent, his wife felt he didn't need her anymore. He was completely self-sufficient, like the Executioner. He didn't need a meister. Then, one day, when she'd been unable to join him, he'd been killed in battle. Or so she thought. He'd actually been in a state of twilight, kind of like a coma. Wanna know what knocked the coma right out of him? The scream. The scream, and then the abrupt cut-off. The loss of his grasp on her wavelength. She'd pitched herself right off of the tallest tower of their fortress. When he realized this, trapped by his own despair, he wallowed in his guilt and pain until it drove him mad.

He was the first Kishin. Lord Death had destroyed him quickly, and thought the matter over. He didn't talk about it to anybody. But when a member of his own guard went Kishin, Lord Death was forced to take precautions. Building the DWMA, a place where weapons and meisters trained to hunt and destroy Kishin eggs before they progressed to full-blown Kishins. Now, 'course Lord Death never _told_ anybody that, but having the smartest, most studious, most intuitive person in the whole damn school as a partner had advantages. Maka had dug around, taking information from practically nothing and creating the past with it. I'd been astounded, and had asked Lord Death. He confirmed this, but told nobody to speak of it.

This, in large, was the reason why partners were discouraged from any type of romantic involvement. That had resulted in the very first Kishin.

But I'll be damned if I let that stop me. Nothing would change my mind. Not now, not ever. My family'd already disowned me, and that hadn't "gotten my head on straight" as my mother had put it. To Hell with the rest of the world. They didn't have one spitting say about my emotions. And while I was unsure about a lot of things, there was one thing I was absolutely positive about.

I, Soul Eater Evans, demon scythe, had fallen head-over-heels in love with my partner, one-star scythe meister Maka Albarn.


End file.
